Starling display over Gretna

[Shewie]

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

 

[Barn Owl]

I've meant to go down and see them there for a while.

 

[robin wood]

I watched a huge flock coming in to roost over Nantwich a couple of weeks ago, stunning sight.

 

[Bushwhacker]

It's a sight to behold eh? I've seen it over the Somerset Levels way and it amazes me how they manage to have such fluid movement without colliding into each other.
What I'd like to know is, which is the one bird that starts the whole move off for the others to follow?

 

[Shewie]

I've meant to go down and see them there for a while.

Gretna is known for it Tam ? The area where I was looked like arable land (although dusted in snow) but I suppose there are some reed beds over near the sea

 

[launditch1]

Its a great sight isnt it.Ive watched them coming in to roost on the Somerset levels at Westhay.Just stunning!

 

[Barn Owl]

Gretna is known for it Tam ? The area where I was looked like arable land (although dusted in snow) but I suppose there are some reed beds over near the sea

Aye,
It's been on the go for a couple of years now that I know of.

 

[Gotte]

I had the misfortune once to be outside in a field with a large flock of starlings doing that overhead. I tell you, there must be something about the acrobatics that loosen the birds' bowels, because it sounded like it was raining. my friend and I were certainly not looking up to behold the sight

 

[Toddy]

In the sixties and seventies there were so many starlings in Glasgow that it was impossible to even hear the traffic over their racket. They blackened the skies, and folks were very much pro taking drastic action to reduce their numbers.
All I mind as a child was delighting in watching them swirl in the sky like a feathery shoal , and playing with the word, their collective noun, a mumuration of starlings

http://news.scotsman.com/south/In-pictures-Synchronised-starlings-over.6599154.jp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/natureuk/2010/11/a-very-british-spectacle.shtml

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Sniper]

There was a largeish number (probably a few hundred) doing their roosting aerobatic display in Ayr town centre just at the end of the summer. Every night around 4 o'clock they started gathering and performing their ballet before dropping down into I think the College area. We would just be having coffee at the office and I would make an effort to take a break just at that time. It was amazing to watch and from a distance it was like smoke swirling in the breeze, a wonderful spectacle to behold nearing the end of a very busy day in the office.

 

[Robbi]

we get that every night here in Belfast, you can watch the smaller flocks coming in from afar to join the HUGE flock and the display is quite stunning,... like fish in the sea, swirling in formation before roosting, goes on for about 15 minutes....wonderful sight.

 

[Grooveski]

Amazing sight. I was hoping to catch the show yesterday on my way up the road but was just a little late.

Last year when I stopped at the wee row of cottages coming out of the green the folk who lived there were out leaning against their wall. Said it never got old.

 

[Wayland]

I remember when I used to work in Birmingham they used to flock like that every night. Fantastic sight and very welcome to me in the heart of the city.

 

[brancho]

We used to get them at work until they were eventuall y scared away with much effort. We still have wheat cropping up is some places after more than ten years. They used to make a awful mess and quite unsanitary it was too.

Amazing to watch but the stink where I work was disgusting

 

[The Cumbrian]

I used to see the starlings at Gretna quite often whe I was traveling home from Chapelcross, an amazing sight. As has been said about the mess though, I'm glad that I was in a car at the time.

Cheers, Michael.

 

[siman]

Used to do it a lot over the sea here before they used to roost under North Pier. Don't do it these days though, council used to go under the pier and play a call of some hawk bird or something and they don't really come back.