NORWICH: Starling murmuration in south Norwich

8th March 2017

Over the past few months I had been keeping an eye out for the Starling murmuration that has been present in Norwich city centre over the past couple of winters, without success. Whilst sitting at my in-laws on Wednesday evening, Cathy pointed out of the window at a flock of 2000+ Starling swirling past! I went outside and watched the murmuration for a bit, before it headed off southwards towards the outer ring road. A chat with another local birder suggested that this year they seem to be roosting near the new ASDA store on Hall Road.

NORWICH: Starling murmuration passes 2000

8th February 2016

Last year lots of people enjoyed watching the Starling murmuration over St Stephen's Street. The sheer numbers of birds, whilst not comparable to the larget reedbed roosts was quite enough to distract shoppers and people who usually wouldn't look twice at a bird. This year numbers have been building up, although varying day to day. Last week I photographed the flock on one day and counted the birds from my photo, counting 520 birds. This week the flock was visibly much larger - in fact it was difficult to fit them all in when photographing them. The strong winds meant that the murmuration was moving quickly and frequently spreading into a long ribbon of birds. Having just about managed to fit them all into a photograph a(nd after an evening of counting) I reached the total - 2134 birds! Of course this method isn't completely accurate (and there were probably a few birds out of shot), but 2130 is a reasonable estimate for the birds in the flock on Monday. Will it continue to grow?!

Murmuration in groups of 20 birds - this took a while!

NORWICH: Starling murmuration

23rd January 2015

Over the winter there has been an impressive Starling murmuration over Norwich, mainly around the Chapelfield/St Stephen's Street area. In the darkest days of winter it has been hapeening whilst I'm still at work, but recently I have been able to go and have a look on my way home. If you live or work around the city I highly recommend trying to see it.