It's Raining Birds

It's been a busy day at work which was good, I much prefer being busy.  At lunch time I met Anne and we went for a walk along the seafront, so I've managed to do 10,000 steps which is good for a working day.

On my way home I parked up on Madeira Drive and went on the pier to watch the murmuration, and what a spectacular display it was tonight.  When I arrived it was about 4.30pm and there wasn't a single starling to be seen, but bang on queue, half an hour before sunset the first small group arrived, and within no time, there were thousands of them!  It's amazing watching all the little groups flying in to form one very big one.  

They start off flying very high, and then as the sun goes down, they get closer to the sea and tonight they were really dancing.  I posted a video on Facebook and a friend said it's like watching ballet in the sky which sums it up quite well.  It's beautiful to watch and everyone comes away smiling, there's definitely a feel good factor.

I've treated myself to a new lens which arrived today - It's a 14-140 mm which is equivalent to a 28-280 mm, so I've sold my 35-100 mm and put the money towards it, together with money that I had for Christmas and my birthday, and Alan paid the difference and said it's a Valentine's present :-)   I can't wait to use it, it would have been perfect for the murmuration today!