Sussex Scrapbook
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Nature walks throughout the year
Wednesday 17th December 2008
Brighton Pier
As we were both free for this very
sunny afternoon we took the chance to do some christmas shopping in Brighton's
North Lanes followed by taking in the spectacular starling roost at the Palace
Pier.
We got to the pier at 3pm and at that time there were more sparrowhawks in the
sky than there were starlings (one). We wandered to the very end and within 15
minutes the first starlings started to arrive a few hundred at a time. We saw
that the better place to see them all was near the deckchairs just before the
amusements. From there we could see swarm after swarm of them coming out of the
city and all heading towards us in a wavy, circling motion. It was completely
mesmerising and it was easy to see why it may have the same effect on predators.
We didn't spot any birds of prey at all, apart from the earlier sparrowhawk. We
also noticed that there was only a small amount of birdsong and no droppings at
all coming from the birds (otherwise we would have been covered).
After swooping around and joining into several super-flocks, the birds starting
making random swirling shapes in the sky. They kept this up for ages and were coming so
low over our heads that they seemed like a sort of bird-ceiling (?). Eventually they
all began to dive underneath the pier where they were going to sleep for the
night. They all perched just underneath the wooden boardwalk only several inches
from everybody's feet and started chattering
away like mad. They kept this up until their thousands of brothers and
sisters had finally made their way to bed, when they suddenly fell silent. The
whole show was over by 4:30 and we then noticed for the first time that we were
freezing cold, so we headed off for hot soup in the Lanes.
If you haven't seen this amazing show, then treat yourself to it very soon.
But dress warm!