40 Before 50: Starling Murmuration

I finally got to witness my first starling murmuration at the age of 52! One of those cold, grey January days where there is nothing inspiring to do...and then I remembered that starlings might still be roosting and doing their fantastic aeronautical displays.

Ham Wall Nature Reserve is where we started out, first for a nice stroll around the reed beds, noticing cormorants drying their wings (apparently their feathers aren't waterproof like ducks)...

...and also enjoying the smaller birds (great tits and robins) that came to join us on the way. I suspect these are used to being fed.

At around 3:30 we crossed the road to the Shapwick Heath Nature Reserve which is apparently where the starlings had been spotted the evening before. We walked for around 20-30 minutes (blindly following other keen murmuration watchers) until we started to see small groups of starlings swooping overhead.

It seemed like they had passed us and we may have missed our chance, when in the space of around ten minutes, they were joined by more and more groups of starlings, dancing in ethereal formation. As they flew and changed direction, the sky turned black with them. It was quite simply breathtakingly entrancing. I wasn't prepared for the sound either - an incredibly loud flapping of wings.

And suddenly, they all funnel into the reed beds and the spectacle is pretty much over, bar a few straggling groups.

I feel so privileged to have seen this. It was something on my 40 Before 50 List, which I didn't get around to!

Love Mrs Jones x