Conservation Manager, Stuart Benn kicks of 2013 with a must-see wildlife spectacle
Starlings by the Bucketload
Happy New Year!
What’s on your bucket list? You know, those things that you would really, really like to see or do before your time is up. I’ve still got plenty that are on there but I ticked one off over the Xmas break – experiencing a big starling roost. Gretna is well known for staging Vegas-style weddings but it now has another claim to fame –the biggest gathering of starlings in Scotland. But it’s not that handy for us here in the north as it’s as far away from Inverness as Brussels is from London. Anyway, we were down near Glasgow before New Year which got us a bit closer so that was the opportunity.
You would think that finding thousands of starlings would be easy but a trawl on the internet suggested that the birds don’t always roost in the same place and some people had come away empty-handed so we needed more accurate info. A quick ask in the Service Station directed us the couple of miles to the trees behind the Gretna Gateway Outlet Village. Unless you’re in need of some serious retail therapy, this is perhaps not the most alluring of spots but, as of December 2012, if you were a starling looking for a safe place to roost with some company, it was the place to be!
Finding a good vantage point wasn’t so easy – we could see the surrounding country stretching off to the English border and the starlings massing on the pylons and wires before heading off in flocks to the town but we kept losing them behind houses. After a bit of trial and error, we reckoned the best place was just up the road from the GGOV – a bit of a restricted view but the action was happening right above our heads.
Animals flock for lots of reasons but two of them are as anti-predator devices. If you are one bird amongst thousands then the chances of you being the individual that is picked out are tiny. But big swirling flocks are also confusing to predators as they find it very hard to focus on just a single. I’d always been slightly dubious about this one but that was exactly our experience – it was impossible to take in the view, no sooner had you fixed on what they were doing than the flock had moved on to a new place a new shape. I can’t describe what it looked like – images of flames flickering in a fire, surf surging round rocks or ink drops in water give some idea but maybe it goes beyond description – it all happens at high speed and in 3D and is simply mesmerising. In the end I just immersed myself in the experience and enjoyed it without trying to give it too much meaning.
They spent ages flying around before they felt secure enough to take cover but, when it came the end was quick, the birds diving from the sky and being sucked into the earth looking for all the world like a tornado working in reverse. Then, all was quiet until we slowly reconnected with the rest of the world – the cars whizzing by, the lights of Gretna, all of which we’d been oblivious to as the show exploded above us.
**Starlings are just one of the many birds to look out for during the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. To register and find out more visit www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch