At this time of year (well, from October onward to be honest!) we get asked a lot about starling murmurations.
When will they be here? What time do they arrive? Where's the best place to see them?
Of course there is nothing quite like the sight of tens of thousands of starlings wheeling in unison over the reserve at dusk and this amazing show is a truly memorable experience for all those who witness it. The problem, as we are reminded every year, is that the birds can be rather unpredictable in their behaviour. In some years the birds arrive in large numbers in autumn and the murmurations can fizzle out by mid-winter whereas in other years the big flocks don't really get here until the new year and the late afternoon displays go on well into early spring.
Then of course, there's the issue of location... as we have seen in recent years, the starlings will shift around periodically making predicting their roost site very tricky indeed. One evening they may perform spectacularly near the Causeway, while the next day they can be at the opposite end of the reserve.
So far this year the starlings have, once again, behaved altogether differently. Initially, we had good numbers of birds coming into the reedbeds to roost; the Skytower provided a consistently reliable viewpoint from which to witness the awe-inspiring sight and sound of up to 60,000 starlings dropping in for the night. Then they became a little restless and started to fragment a little, with birds roosting between the Causeway and Lilian's Pool. Then a couple of weeks ago, they cleared off completely! The birds rather inconveniently relocated to an area a short distance to the north of the main reserve, where there is no public access! And while the huge flocks flew over Leighton Moss (sometime still an impressive sight in itself) they left some would-be-murmuration-watchers somewhat underwhelmed. In recent days however, they have started to display a little over our main reedbeds again and we fully expect (based on previous years' observations) that they will settle back on the reserve sometime soon.
(Photo by Jarrod Sneyd)
In summary - we'll be keeping an eye on their movements and activity on a daily basis and the minute they return to Leighton Moss we will put news out via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. If you're visiting us, please ask our team at the welcome area for the latest updates when you arrive. But until then, we'll just have to enjoy all the other amazing wildlife that's out there!
Talking of which, otters have been showing well at Causeway and Lower in recent days, while bearded tits have continued to visit the grit trays from time to time. This is pretty late, though not unprecedented, for gritting activity so do please pass on your observations to the team at the centre or by writing them down in the sightings book if you are lucky enough to see the 'beardies' or indeed anything else of note. Bitterns and marsh harriers have been fairly active too this week, with at least five of the latter hunting around the reserve most days. Great white egrets are always a joy to see and we clocked six of these elegant herons going to roost at Island Mere on Tuesday.
The pools are heaving with wildfowl at the moment and lots of snipe have been putting on quite a show, at Grisedale and Lilian's in particular. While monitoring the late-afternoon starling activity, we've had good views of barn owl as it hunts for prey over the reeds on a couple of occasions this week too. (Pic from archive by Martin Kuchczynski)
As you can see, there is so much to enjoy here at this time of year and we look forward to welcoming you soon - and from all the staff and volunteers at Leighton Moss, we would like to wish you a very happy 2022!
Jon