Starlings swarm over Poole (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Starlings swarm over Poole
8:00am Friday 5th February 2010 in
SHOPPERS were stopped in their tracks when swarms of thousands of starlings put on a breath-taking display above a Poole supermarket.
The car park at Asda came to a standstill for around five minutes as people watched the birds sweeping and diving in formation.
Luckily one of the shoppers was landscape and nature photographer Rich Meston, who captured their antics for all of us to enjoy.
“I was out with my family getting shopping when my son, Harry, said: ‘Look at that’ and behind me was a massive swarm of starlings,” said Mr Meston, who runs Reikan Photography.
“It was an amazing sight and most of the people in the car park stopped and watched the display.”
Reader Rob Vincent watched the aerial display from his Poole garden. He informs us that the correct term for a gathering of starlings is a “murmuration”.
A spokesman for the RSPB said that late afternoon in winter is the best time to see such formation flying as the birds gather for safety in numbers before returning to their roosting sites for the night.
Comments(6)
SonofKinson
says...
2:40pm Fri 5 Feb 10
mike wonka
says...
3:42pm Fri 5 Feb 10
unwelcome black cloud takes its place
mike wonka
says...
9:25pm Fri 5 Feb 10
Laurie H Marsh
says...
1:21am Sat 6 Feb 10
mike wonka wrote:They let you out for 2 days?
unwelcome black cloud leaves throop unwelcome black cloud takes its place
Laurie H Marsh
says...
11:08am Sat 6 Feb 10
mike wonka wrote:Extra day out for basket-weaving excellence?
Firing shotguns at pretty little starlingos to cut them down, thats gruesome.
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Starlings swarm over Poole
Starlings swarm over Poole
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Laurie H Marsh says...
11:54am Fri 5 Feb 10
I was raised in Throop and flocks of starlings were not welcome.
Every winter the sky would be black with them.
People used to fire shotguns at the flocks to scare them away because (as everyone knew) starlings came from Europe and spread foot and mouth disease!
The noise did not work as the flock would just settle 200 yds. away.
Come to think of it something must have worked because I never heard of any cases of foot and mouth disease the whole time that I was growing up!
We never had any vampires either!
Something must have been working!