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pinkfoot
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starlings and their movements - 2006/11/30 17:58 Hi All!!

New to birding uk but been a wildfowl fanatic for years.

Wonder if anyone would be able to tell me the proper name for the clouds of starlings we see massing at this time of year? Sure, everyone calls them a flock or a swarm, but from what I can remember it is a behaviour of sturnus vulgaris and they use it as a form of defence.

I ask this as I once saw a documentary on Norman cook (AKA fatboy slim) and he knew the name for the whirling mass of sheppeys!!

Thanks in advance anbd look forward to any replies.

Kev Haworth
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nrigby
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Re:starlings and their movements - 2006/11/30 21:39 Great post on an interesting topic.

I believe the term you are looking for is a "murmuration of starlings".

I suppose you're more familiar with a "sord of mallards" or a "paddling of ducks" from what you said.

The "whirling mass of sheppeys" you refer to, is that Starlings? I know you get masses, sorry a murmuration of Starlings off Brighton, particularly the old West Pier. Probably scared off by Norman's DJing off the beach.

Is Norman Cook interested in birds?
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Colsworld
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Re:starlings and their movements - 2006/11/30 22:03 Good call I was just scouring the interweb to find the flock name, looks like you have saved me the trouble.

On a linked note, does anyone know where (Sir!) Oddie watched the starlings flocking on his Autumnwatch/ Birding/ Watching Wildlife with Bill... programmes?

I know he was on the banks of the Severn and I believe he was just north of a village called Purton but would love to know exactly where he was. (The reason is I live in the area and haven't found it myself)

Col
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wetlands_wedge
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Re:starlings and their movements - 2006/12/01 21:08 Hiya!
If we can find out where this phenonmun, sorry, phemomium, sorry, murmuration is, perhaps we can arrange a 'meet' for next year to see it?
As much as I respect 'Odd Billies' greater knowledge about wildlife than I will ever have in my little finger nail, i still find his 'comic' style of presenting odious,and so only watch 'highlights' of his programmes. This seems to be the pattern for modern day nature programmes, two minutes of wildlife shots and twenty minutes of 'I' did this , or 'I' did that with copious shots of some self promoting idiot. For instance: 'Great Journeys', supposedly all about whales, what do we get? A bloke driving a car and stopping for something to eat, on a motorbike crossing a bridge, cooking for the locals, close ups telling us how hard it is to see whales! OR. Attenborough, never see the bloke, loads of wildlife footage with him talking to (not down) to us. Perhaps two minutes of him, twenty of what we want to see! I won't go into Simon King. All the very best,
wetlands_wedge.

ENJOY YOUR BIRDING!
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pinkfoot
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Re:starlings and their movements - 2006/12/03 08:10 Thanks for the replies!!

Yes. Murmuration sounds right!! It was during an Interview with Norman and his wife on TV that the camera panned to a load of sheppeys (definitely starlings, a term well used for them up here on Morecambe Bay!)on Brighton Pier..

He knew straight away the name and had, apparently, been told by someone that knew the correct term
As for the comments on Bill Oddie, I feel I disagree, he has taken the way wildlife has been presented, and taken it to a "human" level, not scientific. The great Mr david Attenborough IS a far more knowledgable person, but, in my eyes, does not have the approachability of Mr Oddie. I'm sure that many people are endeared by his style and his way of presenting the sometimes complex world he portrays.

For Information, Morecambe Bay (especially the Pilling/Cockerham area) is now awash with wildfowl, the recent storms seem to be keeping the Birds grounded, with in excess of 4000 pinks seen in one mass skein.

Kev
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