Spot the birdie

Starling murmuration, Leighton Moss

It was chance we happened to be here to see this spectacular phenomenon this afternoon. There have been a lot of otter sightings at Leighton Moss today, so after we said goodbye to E & K, we headed down the causeway to the public hide.

The hide was thronging with people, most of who seemed to be talking, oblivious to the fact that there was an avoidance zone around the hide that nothing apart from the occasional mallard was venturing into. Needless to say we didn't see a whisker of an otter.

Meanwhile, the starlings were arriving out of sight behind the hide. Someone popped their head in to say they were gathering. Most of the occupants sat there inert, while Wifie and I went out to see. I have been coming across large flocks of starlings heading towards the Moss recently, but I hadn't realised just how many were coming to roost in the reedbeds at this early stage in the winter.

How many birds are there here? How do you begin to count a flock this size? Maybe 100,000?

The big starling murmurations are truly one of the great wildlife spectacles. It is not just the sight of the flock that pulses and wheels as it switches direction, it is the sound too of tens of thousands of murmuring wingbeats. This evening I was struck by how the flock almost appears to coalesce into a single super-organism, flying in perfect coordinated formation, as if under some single celestial control. The flock takes on the form of other giant creatures in the sky: a writhing snake, a creeping slug and here the head of a vast bird.

After ten minutes or so, as if at some command, they all dropped into the reedbeds and just a few stragglers were left coming in to join them. We walked back up the causeway, and to top off the day, the staccato song of a cetti's warbler erupted from the reedbed amongst the pig-like squeals of the water rails.

A fine end to a lovely weekend.

A year ago - another extraordinary phenomenon - a double rainbow strikes the Arnside viaduct.