It’s murmuration time again. All over the country, crowds gather an hour or so before dusk to watch the aerial acrobatics of huge flocks of starlings as they gather together before going to roost.
I say “huge flocks” but although up to 250,000 birds still perform during the winter months near my home on the Somerset Levels this pales into insignificance compared with a few decades ago, when as many as 7m birds were present.
Part of the decline is down to the “short-stopping” phenomenon I mentioned in last month’s column, but starling numbers are also falling – both here and abroad – because of modern farming methods, which reduce the availability of their invertebrate food.
People often ask me if the weather affects the starling murmuration. I’ve certainly found that on windy, wet afternoons the birds are less likely to perform, preferring to head straight down into the reedbed where they roost for the night.
Cold spells – on the rare occasions we experience them nowadays – also affect the birds. In late December, with fewer than eight hours of daylight (even less the farther north you are) the birds may struggle to find enough food, especially if snow lies on the ground. As a result, some arrive after dark, when only the peripheral roost sites are still available – meaning that they are exposed to the cold and more vulnerable to predators.
