Summerleys and Titchmarsh Starling Murmuration

The perfect time to visit Summer Leys Nature Reserve near Wollaston n the hope of seeing the mass gathering of Starlings known as a 'Murmuration'.  

This large, ex-gravel pit is made up of a main lake with gently sloping banks, shallow areas of water and ponds, low lying islands, a large scrape and a fringe of reeds surrounded by grassland and wet woodland. This is ideal habitat for wintering birds: Goosander, Wigeon and Gadwall reach nationally important numbers, joined by large numbers of roosting lapwing and golden plover. 

Wading birds use the scrape and the shallow lake margins. Oystercatcher, ringed plover, little ringed plover and Redshank stay to breed, while Whimbrel, Turnstone and common Sandpiper often pass through during migration. Numerous pairs of common tern nest in a colony on the islands.

Time to complete a circuit (just over two miles) before the Starlings are likely to arrive. Some interesting black goats grazing amongst the fallen leaves. There is also a Great White Egret carefully wading around the waters edge. 

The Murmuration happens during the winter months, roughly from October to March. The peak in numbers is usually December to January when more birds come over from Europe and join our resident birds. 

It's basically a mass aerial stunt - thousands of birds all swooping and diving in unison. It's completely breathtaking to witness. It is thought that Starlings do it for many reasons. ... They gather over their roosting site, and perform their wheeling stunts before they roost for the night.
 

As soon as the light starts to fade small flocks of the birds start to arrive. I had taken to one of the bird hides for a better view. I wanted to get a good view over the red beds as that is where they go down.   

It wasn't long before a large gathering of birds had congregated. Swooping and diving in synchronisation  it is an incredible sight. The noise they make as they fly overhead is amazing too. It really does make the old hairs on the back of the neck stand up! After about 10 minutes as soon as one goes down they all go down and it is over.

 

 

 

It's wet and windy but undeterred we head off to Titchmarsh Nature Reserve. Part of the Thrapston Gravel Pits complex, which lies within the Upper Nene Valley gravel pits Site of Special Scientific Interest. The biggest lake is Aldwincle Lake, which provides a large area for overwintering birds, as well as isolated islands to encourage breeding. It is owned and managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. We are pretty well wrapped up against the elements thankfully as the weather has taken a turn for the worse. It isn't long before we are sheltering in one of the hides for some respite. The River nene runs through the site as does part of the Nene Way walking route.

We decide to do a circuit of the Nature Reserve , by which time the Starlings should be massing and we will be up by the reed beds. That is pretty much how it played out too and thankfully the rain had eased as well. By the time we got round to the North Hide it was raining again so we made use of the dry but windswept shelter.

Starlings were arriving from all directions and seemed to split into three separate groups. There was far more 'performing' than at Summer Leys earlier in the week. The murmuration lasted for the best part of an hour and it was almost total darkness before they went down to roost. 

 

Although Starlings are not the only birds that do it, a murmuration is a term more specifically used for starling flocks. Starlings use murmuration to confuse predators and to keep warm.

Murmuration comes from Medieval Latin murmuratio (“murmuring, grumbling”). The "starling" sense is probably derived from the sound of the very large groups that starlings form at dusk.

I reckon the must have been a minimum of 10,000 Starlings and what a performance they produced!