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Those crazy starlings.


vole
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Vole, your right, it's amazing, and it is a rare sight too these days. ??? It's a really difficult one as when they do come down to one farm they can cause a hell of a mess and be a big nusiance/danger to livestock (due to their droppings in the silage)...but the numbers still aren't what they were. :drinks: I know one farmer who shoots them, but it's not right really :sick: ...and in reality it probably doesn't make that much of an impact on their effect anyway due to the vast numbers they flock in. :drinks:

Edited by Oly
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In my part of West Cumberland as a nipper they used to black out the sky as they went to kip in the Steel Works at Workington when the had Bessemer furnaces.Carling lager did a good advert using a similar clip (its on Youtube) and a soundtrack by Hard Fi or someone. Dont know why but its a cracking advert.

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Around the first week of February every year we get starlings congregating on a pylon near my house, they usually gather there till the first week of march, then just stop. All the local cars look as if they have been polka dot painted after the first few days. I would not like to guess how many there are but it must run into the thousands. The lines for a hundred yards each side of the pylon are crammed with the little *******.

They start arriving in small groups about 4.30pm and then start jostling for position and talking off in ever increasing flocks till about 5.20pm when all of a sudden they all go quiet and the whole lot takes off.

 

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TC

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I wonder how many birds were in that flock...............................theres one for you Fisherman Mike ;) :blink:

 

 

One million six hundred and fiftyseven thousand eight hundred and ninety nine :P Lol. One got killed on the way.

 

Seriously....... Ive been to the RSPB reserve there only a few weeks ago and the display left me lost for words which any one who knows me will know is not a common occurence ! The sound is quite deafening and the most suprising thing is not a lost feather in sight...........A really uplifting once in a lifetime experience if youre a bird lover.

 

Dont forget the Starling is no longer on the Defra general list as its numbers have infact declined drastically in recent years... so as much as you would like to its an offence to shoot them...

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I saw them doing this (not in those numbers) above Aylesbury, of all places, a couple of weekends ago

 

Yeah they roost in the trees above the police station, have to wash the cars all the time!!

 

Nice sight though, I phoned Otwell RSPB and they have finished for the year ;)

 

Oh well will have to try harder to see them later in the year :P :blink:

 

Dean

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I think rocket launchers should be legalized to 'help control these pests' hehe :blink: or even those guns that shoot down planes, you know the ones that just leave loads of balls of smoke (obviously explode) in the skythat were used in WW2 etc? hehe OR even a huuuuuuuuuge flame thrower, that would work well!

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We used to have flocks like this in my area, the droppings killed everything, including trees, in the woods that they roost in. Farmers tried everything legal, (and various ideas that were not) to move them, nothing had any effect. About 8-10 years ago the flocks ceased, they are even a rarity in the garden now. Anybody know why this is? Has there been a large decrease in the numbers, or are they just not in this area any more?

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Bit of a rare sight these days.

 

 

Rare my left butt cheek!!!

 

You shoult take a trip to Cumbria mate!! A friend of mine lives near a farm there and there is a HUGE flock of an estimated 5000 to 10000 which constantly feed in the food put out for the sheep!

 

It was like a Hitchcock moment watching them take off across the sky.

 

It went DARK there were that many!

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