In the Peterborough area we have a couple of these roosts at the moment, one at Deeping Lakes and one at Maxey gravel pits. Both number thousands of birds, but it was at Maxey that I found myself this evening. A few other local birders had also come to view the spectacle and as the numbers of birds grew and grew we were all left speechless, well, almost!
The final estimate was anything between 10-15,000 birds.
Below are a couple of short videos, not the greatest pieces of camera work you are ever likely to see and there are a couple of 'voices off', but hopefully they will give you an idea of what was on offer.
These numbers do give a slightly false impression of the state of Starling numbers at the moment. This year alone, over 40 million of these birds have vanished in Europe. No one knows the cause, but changes in agricultural practice are being mooted as one of the prime reasons. One thing is for sure, if something is not done to reverse the catastrophic fall in numbers of this bird, sights like those above will be a thing of the past.
An amazing sight John. Oddly enough I have just scheduled an iPad drawing post on my Art Blog for release tomorrow morning about this very subject. Great minds and all that.
ReplyDeleteIt was/is indeed Roy.
DeleteI am amazed at what you can do on an iPad. I am not sure about great minds, not as far as my mind is concerned anyway! ;)
J
Remarkable to see anything like this in these days. Thank you for marking it, and for your cautionary note that we must not take this for granted.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan,
DeleteHopefully we will not lose this spectacle, the Starling is still a relatively common bird, but numbers are falling dramatically. We never miss what we have, until it is gone!
J
How wonderful, you are lucky to see it. It can't just be agriculture, they are disappearing from the city as well. When I lived in Leicester there was a roost in the town hall square. We were treated to the display of turning and wheeling every night. Now they are no longer there.
ReplyDeleteThere is a small cluster in our trees at school and they make me smile when on duty.
You may like to know, we spotted a very small flock of peewits in a field yesterday (North Notts) I counted 27 on the ground and my eldest saw another 10 flying.
Hi Charlotte,
DeleteI am very lucky. It is not just agricultural practices, pollution in the cities is to blame as well, it is killing the insects which the birds feed on and also feed their young on. We also block every hole on our houses, so the birds can't nest, we are obsessed with neat and tidy, whereas nature as a whole likes a bit of scruffiness.
J
Hi John. In Cairns, tropical north Queensland, I saw a colony of bats like this at dusk every day. This was followed by a flock of about fifty green parrots (Eclectus I think).
ReplyDeleteI am assembling a list of all the species I spotted not counting those in bird sanctuaries. Fortunately one of my Aussie friends is a nature-loving Park Ranger so he helped identify a few.
Your Starling videos are wonderful.
Click here for Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’
Hi Bazza,
DeleteNow you are just showing off! ;)
Looking forward to the list of birds that you saw on your trip to Australia, that's if you are going to post it?
J
Actually John, I hadn't thought of making a post of it. Perhaps I will. Maybe I will consult you first!
DeleteI think you should Bazza, purely on a selfish level, I would find it interesting. What I know about Australian birds can be written on the back of an extremely small postage stamp! I am sure that, with your friends help, you know a lot more than me.
DeleteJ
Hi John
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome display of nature at its most breathtaking. May such a sight continue and bring pleasure to future generations. We can only hope that we will not destroy the natural balance of those magnificent starlings.
Thank you for your support and I hope you had a peaceful, positive weekend.
In kindness,
Gary
Hi Gary,
DeleteYes, a truly amazing sight. You don't have to be interested in birds to wonder at this natural spectacle.
Hopefully we will learn from past mistakes, but then again, I seem to be saying that a lot just lately.
J
Wonderful John...
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrew,
DeleteJ
Many years ago we lived 3 miles inland from the Suffolk coast where a sight like this was regular and for many years have lived in Cornwall where any flocks of starlings are much smaller and rarer. We do miss this sight in the Suffolk skies so I have enjoyed this post albeit tinged with nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a fairly large roost in Cornwall, not sure where, but these sights are becoming scarcer as time goes on. Starling numbers are in free fall anyway, so consequently the large roosts are vanishing too.
DeleteI am glad you enjoyed your trip down memory lane. :)
J
Hello John...I have jsut discovered your blog. It's wonderful. I wondered if you could let me know where you were standing when you watched the Starlings at Maxey Pits please? And what is thebest time to get there? I can't wait to see them...hoping that they will still be there this Friday??? Thank you, Odette Pineger (Yaxley)
ReplyDeleteHi Odette,
ReplyDeleteFirstly, Thank you for your kind words and the 'Follow'.
Secondly, I am afraid that the roost at Maxey has now gone, they left just before Christmas, no-one seems to know where. Starling roosts do tend to dissipate around the end of December when birds move off to their breeding grounds, but they will hopefully be back next winter. The place where I stood was in a lane called Woodgate Lane, in the village of Maxey itself, just after the Bluebell pub.
Thanks again,
J