We have had a strange event occur recently. At dusk, as I walked in the woods it seemed to disturb the birds which fly around silently, in rather large numbers. A bit like swarming. I don’t think they’re small but maybe sized much the same as a starling- but this is a guess. It was very eerie. What bird do you think it was?
It could possibly Starling murmuration. That happens in lots of places during the Autumn/Winter period! Link below with video! And in the second link an article about Starling murmurations. In my youth back in the 1950’s and 1960’s and even in later decades the Starling Murmurations in the centrue of Newcastle Upon Tyne and other bigger cities in the UK where absolutely much larger than the present, but sadly no more because of the decline of the Starling in the UK. But Starling Murnurattion’s can be seen across the UK as mentioned in the second link below. But it could be other birds and for a definite answer more details would be needed. The third link was a 30 minute film broadcast in 1970 on UK TV called The Private Life of the Starling. Of course now sadly this film is out of date as far the Starling Murmurations in cities and big towns are no more sadly.As this film first broadcast in 1970 torte where around 100 thousand starlings alone in the Autumn. In Newcastle Upon Tyne of where I live not far away very close to Newcastle the Star,ingpopulation was T as big as London. But still much larger than what you will see anywhere in the UK today in one of the murmurations towards the end of the 30 film The Private Life of The Starling there is around 3 million starlings in the murmuration filmed! And that is only a guess. As the murmuration is so large. This film gives you an idea what the size of Murmurations used to be like. But because of the decline of the Starling when there used to be massive murmurations of Starling with some up to 3 million individual starlings in some murmurations and now below 100 thousand. Even though todays murmurations might seem spectacular. Sadly compared to my youth the number of Starlings in murmurations now is much much smaller in size and that is so sad!
s
https://youtu.be/C4Xi89svhF8
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/starling/starling-murmurations/https://youtu.be/J6jTWOuTjM8
Regards,
Ian.
7.45 this morning. I know what the birds are and they continued coming over like this for 15 minutes. No, they were not circling and coming back round. It was thousands of them as they were behind and above. Then off in the distance another few thousand. And so it continued for the 15 minutes I watched. They were fleeing from NNE to SW. No idea what lifted them but it was thousands. Never seen anything like it before. Some stopped off for a rest and then rejoined quickly.