More Starlings～

The weather is getting colder and the starling flocks are getting bigger~

The speed that they disappeared into the reedbeds was just as impressive.

I wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Starlings Are Back～

Cold autumn/winter days may not be ideal for bird watchers in UK, but they are perfect for the starlings. Every year tens of thousands, sometimes millions, of starlings choose to spend the winter here.  

Luckily, this year, they have chosen their roosting sites in the reedbeds of a local Nature Reserve.

These gatherings usually begin in November with relatively small numbers, as seen in these photos taken last week.  

Although the starlings did not perform the famous aerial display (murmuration) that day, I was still very impressed and felt very privileged to watch these charismatic birds.

Then they disappeared into the reedbeds as fast as they arrived.  

As the weeks go on and the weather gets colder, more and more birds will arrive. Hopefully I will be able to capture larger starling gatherings this winter.

Bird Watching In UK---Spectacular Starling Murmuration

   I have been hoping to watch a Starling Murmuration, where hundreds of thousands of birds flock together swirling in the sky at dawn and dusk, in the UK for a long time. My dream came  true during my visit to England at Christmas. 

 The Starling is one of the commonest garden birds in UK. 

  Each year, in addition to the UK resident birds, millions of starlings from Europe spend the winter in the relatively warm Britain.

   These birds are very sociable and prefer to roost together because it not only offers safety in numbers but also enables them to keep warm together.  Each day, they tend to flock back to (and leave) the roosting place at the same time, which are magical moments for bird watchers. 

   In spite of the fact that every part of my starling watch plan had gone wrong (dark cloudy morning, bad timing, lost on the way...) , it was still overwhelming when I saw tens of thousands of birds departing from their roosting place in Shapwick Heath Nature Reserve, Somerset. 

Clearly the starling’s performance was under represented by the images shown here. I am determined to go back next year with a better plan and return with better photos~