Starlings in Brighton

As many of you may know this is the time of year that starlings gather in huge numbers and make calligraphic patterns in the sky over Northern Europe. They gather together forming murmurations all over the UK and I was lucky enough to see them on Saturday evening on Brighton pier. You can tell we are in Brighton because in the background you can hear a Dad say to his kid “Which are the Starling Mods and which are the Starling Rockers?!”

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For a film taken by a rather better operator of the video camera than myself here is a link to murmurating starlings in Derby at the beginning of 2010 on the BBC website. There are also spectacular images of the swarming in Rome where millions of starlings congregate annually. A pan -European science team have discovered that they fly in groups of 7 birds rather than having 1 dominant leader. Although the swarming mechanism wards off predators as in the starlings case,  the peregrine falcon, it appears this is not always the reason for the gatherings to take place.

These films give us a wonderful insight into the inspiration for Eberhard Ross' starling swarm paintings and illustrates the breadth and variety in how these small birds are depicted in his work.