Snettisham beach in North Norfolk, near Sandringham Royal Estate, is a good place to witness a phenomenon known as murmuration. Usually at sunset, large groups of Starlings occupy the sky alongside the Wash as they swoop and swirl in packs, ducking and diving as they twist and turn across the sky. They make beautiful shape-shifting formations which are spellbinding and fascinating to watch. It is sheer poetry in motion.

The word murmuration which describes this activity is derived from the noise the birds make by the flapping of wings of so many birds in flight.This tends to happen during the Autumn and Winter months, often from October to March, though sometimes earlier. It tends to peak in December to January when native birds are joined by more birds from all over Europe

At sunset, large groups of starlings take to the sky, swooping and swirling into spheres, planes and waves. The phenomenon is called a murmuration, and it’s named after the noise that is made by the many flapping wings of a group of starlings in flight. Being together offers safety in numbers – predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotizing flock of thousands. They also gather to keep warm at night and to exchange information, such as good feeding areas.

Here’s a poem inspired by wading birds at Snettisham, a reminder of Murmuration of Starlings,
by my friend Piers Northam

Myriad waders
ribbon the foreshore,
crisply backlit
as they needle the sands.

Kettled by tidewater,
they lift and resettle
until, rising together,
they skein
like wind-rippled silk;
billowing into clouded
bee-swarm;
funnelling
and shoaling
as they scud across the skies.

Snettisham beach
29 August ’22