We're fortunate to live close to a large nature reserve of lakes. From late Autumn until Spring Starlings give displays of murmuration's (from the sound they make) There are various theories of why they do this, maybe they even enjoy doing it?
A Murmuration of Starlings
With their iridescent black feathersdisplaying greens and purples as they fly
Starlings are beautiful birds, when in
late Autumn they start arriving from afar,
to roost together in our Fen Drayton lakes.
Then as the day wanes and the sun slowly
sinks down the sky it becomes the signal
for them to arise in a murmuration.
Once aloft each fixes its own position,
not closing on the next bird’s location;
then with wing responding to wing they
abandon themselves, becoming conjoined
into one single organism – as a living cloud,
which flows and shape-shifts up in the sky:
stretching out, folding back then wheeling
around to begin again another new shape.
From below we watch in awe as they fly
into the suns failing light, their murmur
such as a low gusting wind they become
harbingers of imminent night, until
the day fades and they spiral down into
smaller groups of single birds to roost
in reed beds where they need not dream,
for they have danced in natures divine.
© D G Moody 2025
(Image Courtesy of Walter Baxter)
Poetry by D G Moody
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Written on 2025-12-13 at 16:53
Tags Nature Mystery
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