Author Topic: stunning starlings at Slimbridge  (Read 4552 times)

border-rider

stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« on: 30 January, 2009, 09:45:45 pm »

toekneep

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #1 on: 30 January, 2009, 10:07:15 pm »
Or even better, get to your local(ish) site and see it for yourself, it is one of those things that will stay with you for the rest of your life. I saw it at Silverdale in Lancashire thirty odd years ago and I have never forgotten it.

Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #2 on: 30 January, 2009, 10:09:45 pm »
What do you do with them after you've stunned them?

woollypigs

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #3 on: 30 January, 2009, 11:06:22 pm »
My old folks went to one in the southern part of Denmark and they told me that the light disappeared when the starlings flew over them. They were told that there were over a million in one of the swarms. It is a "show" and was called "dark night" even though they where there in daytime.
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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #4 on: 30 January, 2009, 11:13:12 pm »
They used to do it near York quite a lot. Haven't seen a good display for years though.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

hellymedic

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #5 on: 30 January, 2009, 11:45:32 pm »
Do they still congregate around the centre of Birmingham?
I've seen some amazing displays there.

Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #6 on: 30 January, 2009, 11:58:06 pm »
It is amazing isn't it...   This is a good place near Oxford... RSPB Otmoor
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/XH-groCeKbE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/XH-groCeKbE&rel=1</a>

Went at the end of Jan last year, hope to catch them this yr before they migrate...
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Jaded

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #7 on: 31 January, 2009, 12:24:00 am »
Do they still congregate around the centre of Birmingham?
I've seen some amazing displays there.

I remember them in Manchester in the late '80s.

You would see them take off from the buildings and know that you had a couple of seconds to hide in a doorway or get your umbrella up.
It is simpler than it looks.

Basil

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #8 on: 31 January, 2009, 08:31:35 am »
Do they still congregate around the centre of Birmingham?
I've seen some amazing displays there.

Not for many years now as far as I am aware.  I thought about this myself recently, remembering the displays you mention.  I guess (and it is only a guess) that the anti pidgeon strategies deployed on most city centre buildings these days could be the reason.
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Snakehips

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #9 on: 31 January, 2009, 10:26:05 am »
I remember being amazed as a great flock took off from Leicester Square in London many years ago. Though I have been back there several times since I have never seen a repeat performance.

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #10 on: 31 January, 2009, 11:50:22 pm »


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sas

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #11 on: 01 February, 2009, 12:43:14 am »
It is amazing isn't it...   This is a good place near Oxford... RSPB Otmoor
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/XH-groCeKbE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/XH-groCeKbE&rel=1</a>

Went at the end of Jan last year, hope to catch them this yr before they migrate...

I didn't realise the RSPB had a reserve there. When do they migrate?
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border-rider

Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #12 on: 01 February, 2009, 06:14:48 pm »
Do they still congregate around the centre of Birmingham?
I've seen some amazing displays there.

Not for many years now as far as I am aware.  I thought about this myself recently, remembering the displays you mention.  I guess (and it is only a guess) that the anti pidgeon strategies deployed on most city centre buildings these days could be the reason.

Mostly it is because the numbers have fallen drastically

From being a very common bird when I was young, Starlings are now an endangered species :(


rogerzilla

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #13 on: 01 February, 2009, 06:20:05 pm »
I saw them doing this in the very centre of Manchester in about 1991.
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Really Ancien

Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #14 on: 01 February, 2009, 09:23:12 pm »
[
Mostly it is because the numbers have fallen drastically

From being a very common bird when I was young, Starlings are now an endangered species :(


They were virtually unknown before the 1830s, their numbers are bolstered by winter migrants from Europe when it's cold over there. One of their principal foods is 'Leatherjackets', Crane Fly larvae, they seem to have some odd cycles, you may remember the plague of 'Daddy Long Legs' a few years ago.

Damon.

border-rider

Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #15 on: 01 February, 2009, 09:27:40 pm »
It's on the Red List.

Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #16 on: 01 February, 2009, 09:30:21 pm »
there used to be huge flocks around my stepdads pig farm, he was mixing his own feed there and they used to swarm (?) around the barn - an absolutely amazing sight.   The numbers started dropping about 15 years ago and now there are very few.

Jaded

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #17 on: 01 February, 2009, 10:18:03 pm »
It's on the Red List.

Surely almost everything is on the red list apart from sulphur eating bacteria?
It is simpler than it looks.


Jaded

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #19 on: 01 February, 2009, 10:59:10 pm »
I was meaning more in the next 200 years or so...
It is simpler than it looks.

border-rider

Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #20 on: 02 February, 2009, 08:40:12 am »
I think malarial mosquitoes will find life easier here :)

Jaded

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Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #21 on: 02 February, 2009, 09:46:44 am »
Yes, I'd agree.

Probably not today though! <shivvering smiley>
It is simpler than it looks.

Really Ancien

Re: stunning starlings at Slimbridge
« Reply #22 on: 02 February, 2009, 10:26:02 am »
I can remember them in large numbers in Leicester square in the mid 1980s, they used to roost in the Planes. I recently saw some roosting in the big Sodium lamps on the Quayside in Ullapool, they were actually inside the diffusers.

Damon.