Gretna murmuration.

I have known about the impressive murmuration which occurs near Gretna every year. However we have never made the effort to go and see it. Today we decided we would.

So in the afternoon we decide to have a run up and see what we could find. Typically we arrived early so we stopped at the Gretna gateway "outlet village" for a coffee until we began to see small groups of Starlings all heading in the same direction. You have probably heard of American "storm chasers" who drive around following storms to study whirlwinds etc. Well we became "Starling chasers" and by following the direction groups were flying in we found the main flock.

Parked in a gateway on a tiny back road out of the gloom suddenly appeared an man walking his dog. After a chat with him (on that road at that time he had to be local) he suggested another road where we might get nearer.

During all this time the birds had been flocking in and filled the wires between two pylons. Yes every wire and all the space filled by birds shoulder to shoulder and overflowing onto the girders. The noise heard from about a third of a mile away was terrific. Suddenly at some invisible signal they all took flight. This caused a reaction I would not have believed if I hadn't seen it. The cables released from the pressure bounced at least 2 feet (60cm) up into the air. There was now a flock flying to and fro over the area where they were going to roost, with more birds joining all the time.

We decided to try the road the local suggested and moved the car. By the time we had moved the couple of,miles the flock was approximately a mile long. When it was almost dark they started to drop into cover and within seconds they were gone.

Back blipped into the period when I was a guest my blipping started 17.12.13