A Mysterious Photograph – Watch the Birdie!

A couple of snaps taken by one of our team members in the early evening around 5pm GMT.  Every day for the last month, as we have been organising the late afternoon despatches to the post office and collection depot we have been observing a phenomenon.

What’s in the Picture?

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The tiny black dots in the sky are actually birds, common starlings to be exact and over the last few weeks since Christmas, increasing numbers of them have been coming to our town to roost.  Starlings are small birds found in gardens and in the countryside, however, they form communal roosts and prefer to roost in towns (where it is slightly warmer than the surrounding countryside), and they create massive swirling clouds as they fly in vast numbers.

It is hard to estimate their numbers but an ornithologist suggested that there were in excess of 100,000 and they will dance and weave about above the town as they decide where to sleep for the night.  We were told that they prefer to roost in conifers and that it is very unwise to park your car near them as during the night several kilogrammes of highly corrosive guano will be created.

As these birds fly in huge flocks above the town, the perform a spectacular aerobatic display.  We have been lucky enough to  see some amazing animal sights in our travels over the years, herds of wildebeest migrating across the Masai Mara, vast flocks of flamingos nesting on salt lakes, elephants, tigers and such like.  However, perhaps the most amazing natural animal phenomenon any of us have observed is created by the humble starling just a few miles from our office.

Not a bad spectacle and I only got “pooped” on twice whilst taking the photographs.

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