On Saturday John A and I decided to check out the Starling "Mini Murmuration" at Brunswick. We arrived at 4pm and spent 45mins driving round to find the best vantage point and after a couple of wrong decisions we placed ourselves next to the Pylon they were gathering on and close to. I realised we were in the right position when in the back garden of a couple of houses several people came out with cups of tea and sat in a line looking at the pylon. We were also approached by a gentleman with a dog and his opening statement was "Are you from the bloody council come to get rid of these bloody birds for us, will you shoot them?"
After explaining that we were just interested as observers of wild life in the local area his attitude changed from his initial gruff approach to one of an informant telling us of his woes all surrounding "Bird Shit" on his car and caravan. Both John and I noticed several dollops of Bird Shit on his coat as he had walked directly under the Pylon where the Starlings were gathering but didn't say anything as we nodded sympathetically to his outpourings.
Anyway as far as Murmurations go it was very mini compared to the ones I have seen at Gretna and Martin Mere but it is our own little County one, although the experienced birders will no doubt regale us of the massive ones that happened all over the area when they were just knee high to a White Stork Common Crane (someone mentioned that I must use birds that are tickable in the UK). The gentleman that we spoke to above also told us of "them bloody gatherings" being 10 times bigger a few years ago. So here is a couple of short videos (up to my normal standard of visual and audial perfection) for you to look at, if you wish. I have linked them to UTube as you get better quality then (and they definitely need any help they can get)
The Gathering (Press the UTube logo to view)
Going To Roost (Press the UTube logo to view)
Complaints about the light in the 2nd Video should be directed at
"The Big Guy Above The Clouds"
3 comments:
That 2nd vid ain't too bad at all John. You could have edited out the numpties in the background !
John,
Dont you just hate it when those numpties come up to you and start talking when your filiming (the geordie pronunciation). Maybe we should take a clapperboard next time and we can go lights (need a bit more), camera (could do with a better one), action (not much at my age)
John
great blog, tell me where that guy lives and i will go over and do a s##t on his car, see what he makes of it :)
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