Starling launch

A quieter day today, catching up with various chores and preparing for the week ahead. Pete washed the larger part of the living room ceiling and filled the holes, so I know what I shall be doing tomorrow morning! I'm just hoping that one coat of white paint will do the job.

I made the most of the glorious sunshine and took the dogs for a walk along the river at Castor. I found I was definitely under-dressed. The weather has been so mild recently that I've been used to going out with just a shirt and fleece. Today the wind was cold and strong, and I definitely felt the need for a jumper, hat and gloves.

Initially there didn't seem to be much wildlife around, but as I finally reached the shelter of a hedge, I noticed a flock of birds feeding on the adjacent field, part of an organic farm which is currently fallow. At first I wasn't sure what they were, as they looked quite silvery in the sunshine, and shifted along the field in a mercurial cloud, flying low over the grass for a short distance and then settling down again to feed.

When they came sufficiently close I could see that it was a very large flock of starlings. At one point they were disturbed and took to the air in a mid-day murmuration. Many of them eventually landed in the branches of a stag-headed oak, and as I walked past I could hear them chattering and whistling to each other. The image was taken just at the point where they decided it was safe to fly back down into the field to feed again.

When I wrote about the starling murmuration last weekend I was asked whether they have declined in Britain. The RSPB web-site has the following information about population levels:

Starling numbers have declined markedly across much of northern Europe and the UK. The decline in the UK started during the early 1980s and has continued ever since. Recent data from the Breeding Bird Survey suggest continuing population declines affecting starlings in England and Wales since 1995. The cause of the starling decline in the UK is unknown.

Starlings are heavily dependent on soil invertebrates like earthworms and leatherjackets, and it is possible this food supply has either declined or perhaps become less available during dry summers.

Long-term monitoring by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) shows that starling numbers have fallen by 66 per cent in Britain since the mid-1970s. Because of this decline in numbers, the starling is red listed as a bird of high conservation concern.

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