Gatherings

We drove up to Aberystwyth to put H & F on their train back to Manchester. It's a windy coastal town that encompasses cultural outpost (university and national museum) and seaside resort with a handsome marine parade and small pier. Standing there to watch the tide roll in I remembered that the pier is a celebrated  starling roost and sure enough, at 4 o'clock as the light was fading the birds started to arrive in their tens, hundreds, thousands, mostly from the east where they had been spending the day in the hills and fields of central Wales. Wheeling down towards the sea they make a final swoop for the ironwork structure under the pier where, after jostling and arguing for a while,  they  settle for the night.
No actual murmuration occurred today and my camera couldn't pick up the individual birds very clearly but there's an explanation of the whole process here along with some video of that incredible phenomenon.

I found the human gathering  that precedes the starlings' evening ritual equally interesting (extra).