Weekly Photo Challenge: Weightless

Oh to be a bird, flying high in the sky, defying gravity. But all is not so simple for smaller birds. Predators are waiting at every turn so some birds have a way of trying to confuse the predators. They fly in large flocks, twisting and turning through the sky to form amazing patterns. Here in the UK starlings perform this ritual before settling down for the night on their roosting spots.

According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

Grouping together offers safety in numbers – predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotising flock of thousands.

The only way to see this is to get out there, into the open countryside. That’s where the birds are. You’ve got to go to them.

I photograph all my birds and animals in the wild, in their natural environment. Some photographers will cut branches from nearby trees and bolt them to a small table. They’ll then put food at the bottom of the branches and sit back, behind a blind, with a long lens, and wait. To me, that may be bird photography, but it isn’t wildlife photography. – David Young

Last night was cold but worth it. The starlings started flying about dusk 4.00pm. Just a few birds at first, but gradually the flock got bigger and bigger as more starlings joined the murmuration. That’s what it’s called, a murmuration, at least here in the UK it is. Have you ever seen birds flying like this. What do you call it?

The display continued until about 4:35. Then suddenly it was all over. They just disappeared. Where had they gone? Simple really, they settle for the night on the wetlands where they roost. Here they’ll stick together and keep warm overnight. Oh! And according to the RSPB, this is where they swop stories about the best feeding areas.

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