When I was returning back to Yorkshire after a canoe trip a few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to witness something I've wanted to see for years.
As I was trundling down the M74 just by Gretna I noticed a black shimmer in the sky out of the left corner of my windscreen. Luckily I was just coming up to the next junction so I pulled off and stopped down at the roundabout. Getting out I looked up to the almost dark sky and saw what must have been at least seven or eight hundred Starlings doing their dance.
I stood and watched as they did big darting loops around the fields next to where I was, further away I could just make out smaller flocks coming in from all directions to join in the party. They seemed to just melt into the formation and instantly pick up on the new directions as the mass twisted and turned up above.
Annoyingly I'd forgotten to pick up my batteries so had no pics of the snow on Loch Lomond or any footage of what I witnessed.
I never realised they were doing this country wide, every time I've seen it on the box it always seems to be down in Norfolk somewhere.
I'll be keeping an eye out next time I'm passing that way and sunset and I'll make sure I've got batteries with me too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9175000/9175793.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BurP-Oizses
As I was trundling down the M74 just by Gretna I noticed a black shimmer in the sky out of the left corner of my windscreen. Luckily I was just coming up to the next junction so I pulled off and stopped down at the roundabout. Getting out I looked up to the almost dark sky and saw what must have been at least seven or eight hundred Starlings doing their dance.
I stood and watched as they did big darting loops around the fields next to where I was, further away I could just make out smaller flocks coming in from all directions to join in the party. They seemed to just melt into the formation and instantly pick up on the new directions as the mass twisted and turned up above.
Annoyingly I'd forgotten to pick up my batteries so had no pics of the snow on Loch Lomond or any footage of what I witnessed.
I never realised they were doing this country wide, every time I've seen it on the box it always seems to be down in Norfolk somewhere.
I'll be keeping an eye out next time I'm passing that way and sunset and I'll make sure I've got batteries with me too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9175000/9175793.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BurP-Oizses
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