Amazing Starlings at Gretna Green

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Amazing Starlings at Gretna Green

22 posts & 13 voices | Started 1 year ago by simonralli2 | Latest reply from ernie_lynch

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simonralli2 - Member

Today I completed a lifetime ambition to see starlings nesting. The photos do not do the experience any justice at all, and it is just bamboozling how they do not manage to collide. Gretna Green has one of the UK's largest nesting grounds for starlings, and may have been featured on the BBC's Naturewatch. I going to go back with my video camera, as it really has to be seen in motion. Just incredible really and I thought I would share.

November 19th by simon ralli, on Flickr

IMG_0075 by simon ralli, on Flickr

IMG_0098 by simon ralli, on Flickr

IMG_0083 by simon ralli, on Flickr

Full set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonralli/sets/72157625300355791/with/5189620805/

Posted 1 year ago #
skidartist - Member

I was at the services at Gretna a few winters back and the sky was full with them - horizon to horizon. Plan to leave a trail of breadcrumbs from gretna to ayrshire so that I can have them all to myself.

Posted 1 year ago #
simonralli2 - Member

Heh. One of the really amazing things was seeing them finally nest. I may try and load the video up from my camera later. How it is all co-ordinated I have no idea.

Posted 1 year ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

It is indeed an amazing sight.

Posted 1 year ago #
the hustler - Member

we used to get them here where i live, amazing sight, but not good for the car paintwork........their dodo is acidic.

Posted 1 year ago #
CountZero - Member

Nice pics Simon, I've been down to the roosts on the Somerset Levels the last couple of years, and it is indeed an awe-inspiring sight, the sound of thousand of wings wirring overhead is fantastic. Trouble is there are thousands of acres of reedbed down there and predicting where the little buggers are going to roost is very difficult. Also, you really need a raptor or two to stir them up into a full display, like a Peregrine or Sparrowhawk, otherwise they'll just circle a couple of times then settle. Hoping this winter I might get some really good photos. Autumnwatch was at the roost at Aberystwyth Pier, and they showed some research that gave clues as to how the starlings manoeuvre in flocks.

Posted 1 year ago #
bloodynora - Member

They're roosting not nesting Simon Superb photos though, truly an amazing sight. Well done.

Posted 1 year ago #
ernie_lynch - Member

Yup, they are amazing...........I'm a bit of a starlinist myself.

Although their deep south southern cousins are amazing too :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuWFOVQjIcs

Posted 1 year ago #
simonralli2 - Member

Roosting - doh!

Here's my little video from my Canon IXUS. Hoping to make a much better video tomorrow!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaM-v5qyW8I

Posted 1 year ago #
user-removed - Member

That's nuts - I'd love to see that! There was a cooking-lager advert (Carlsberg?) a while ago with a great bit of footage of a sky black and alive with roosting starlings.

Posted 1 year ago #
CountZero - Member

Wow! That is a superb piece of film. Honestly, that is just the most fantastic display; consider yourself blessed to have witnessed that. There are people travel huge distances to the Levels and see hardly anything at all. It's around fifty miles for me to get there, and I've seen nothing on that scale. Astonishing.

Posted 1 year ago #
simonralli2 - Member

Yeah - I think the benefit of Gretna Green is that there is a tiny roosting ground. I met a very nice young couple who had taken the day off work and come up from Durham I think. Another much older couple had come up from Yorkshire. And there were a few more local people and a few others I did not speak to. But yeah, I have been waiting for some good weather before going, and I was not disappointed. It is just amazing how many birds there are that fly together. Must be thousands maybe?

Posted 1 year ago #
MrNutt - Member

its all just cover for cottaging, we're on to you lot you know that right?

Posted 1 year ago #
CountZero - Member

There's always one wants to drag it down to gutter level.

Posted 1 year ago #
rs - Member

thats way more awesome than i was expecting

Posted 1 year ago #
rOcKeTdOg - Member

are they good eating?
*loads up the Purdys*

Posted 1 year ago #
CountZero - Member

are they good eating?
*loads up the Purdys*

I think you'll find the eating not worth the effort, there's not much to a starling. Unless you're French, in which case you'll eat it just because it flies and you can shoot it.

Posted 1 year ago #
simonralli2 - Member

I went out again today to try and make a video. Light wasn't great as it was raining but I think I have caught some good shots around 1min 30 secs.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5K7rZYnv0s

Posted 1 year ago #
Woody - Member

Quite amazing.

Posted 1 year ago #
Markie - Member

Fantastic! Thanks.

Posted 1 year ago #
simonralli2 - Member

Well I have just ordered myself a Canon s95 so am hoping to return in a few day's time to see if I can get some much better quality photos. Does anyone know when the starlings stop these displays?

Posted 1 year ago #
ernie_lynch - Member

I think I have caught some good shots around 1min 30 secs.

Yep, it looks like they are attempting to re-enact a scene from The Mummy.

All that fancy flying must take some serious coordination. It must be a real bugger when someone cocks it up..........and you know there's always one who does.

"Does anyone know when the starlings stop these displays? "

Bedtime.

Posted 1 year ago #

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