Topic: never got a camera when you need it

[ACE]

I was coming home earlier today along a quiet country lane and noticed a few starlings flying  over, they were joined by a few more, then even more. I noticed in my mirror that there was a black cloud behind, it turned out they were also starlings. It was a clear road so I stopped for a good look and was treated to a show of swooping, swirling, twisting and all sorts of wierd shapes, there were thousands of them. I watch them for 20 minutes then in a flash they were gone.  What a fantastic show and something I have not seen live before.

[Robert_Brenchley]

We used to get flocks like that over Birmingham every winter, as they came in to roost in the nice warm city atmosphere. They disappeared after buildings were netted to keep birds off. Personally I think that city warmth was maintaining an artificially high starling population by helping them survive the winter, and that the declining numbers recently have been at least partly because of netting.

[Rob08]

I have seen similar displays in Belfast city in the autumn and it really is a sight to behold - it certainly made being stuck in rush hour traffic more bearable...

My sister lived in Rome for a time and she said that the birds heading into the city to roost in the winter is a real problem there.  She remembers her and a few other people having to take shelter under a bus stop in the Pyramide part of the city once when a flock of starlings came in to roost - it started to 'rain' heavily, but it was all bird poop!

[theothermarg]

I used to see this every night on my way to work around 5-30pm for a few weeks  8) this was before my PC and digi camera days. still working in the same place even got vidio on the camera and camera on my phone but no starlings :'(   wouldn,t it be great if we could record memories)
marg