Starling Flocks

Starling Flocks.

The kids and I went up to a reserve close to Glastonbury to watch flocks of starlings come into roost. Shapwick Heath is a well known spot for these large flocks of starlings so we were not alone; twichers with long lenses on their cameras and spotting scopes on tripods were there.

There is something faintly amusing about these characters. Are the long lenses and long spotter scope a substitute for something lacking in their lives, like life? Or are they frustrated hunters who have given into the modern pressure of pretending nothing ever dies?

As well as twitchers there were nice normal people gathered to watch as well, some in bright colours, which did not bother the starlings, but seemed to offend the drab clothed twichers. There was even one splendid chap in tweeds and a canary coloured cravat.

No matter how we were apparelled all were amazed by the thousands of starling that swooped and wheeled making swirling amoeba like shapes in the sky. How they don't collide with one another is a mystery, I wonder does it have anything to do with their iridescent plumage, does this enable them to see and react instantly to any movement?

I quite often have starlings on my lawn, they always seem in a hurry stuffing them selves with bread and then off they go. When the lawn is short they can be seen paddling their feet to encourage the worms to come up. I wonder how the lame starling who is often out their manages; perhaps he has become a vegetarian, poor thing.

It is said that starling have a truly awful taste, and it used to be the test of a really good gun dog to see if it would retrieve one. This is sometime true of woodcock too, which gundogs do not seem to like retrieving, though my terrier never seemed to mind.

On a reminisce, the last time I saw flocks of the magnitude of Shapwick Heath was in Aberystwyth ; having finished a funeral there the undertaker and I went for tea on the sea front. While we wee enjoying old fashioned tea and scones in one of the hotels we witnessed thousands of starlings coming in to roost under the pier.