It seems that our winter visiting Starlings maybe on their return journeys, this message was posted a couple of days ago on the vismig site:
Hans Van Galsteren, a professional radar man in the Netherlands, observed high numbers of birds yesterday flying from Great Britain to the Netherlands. It was the first wave of Scale 8 (on scale 1 to 8) from this spring. His guess was that it were Starlings but that has to be confirmed in the field. (relates to 21st February 2007)
also posted yesterday: Wouldn't be at all surprised if they were Starlings. There were several thousand on Plenmeller Common, Northumberland on Sunday, along with several hundreds (roughly 800) of Lapwing and 300 Golden Plover. The Starlings were feeding furiously and were very flighty and certainly weren't around in such numbers the previous week. Nearly all the Lapwing flocks I've seen recently have been accompanied by Starlings. (Relating to 18th February 2007)
Not been out myself to catch up on this, but will endeavour to try this weekend.
Hi Bryan just got off the phone to my contact at Clowbridge he reports c200 feeding in fields this morning. Have you noticed how many Blackbirds there are about at the moment, I seem to be seeing good numbers in groups of between 2 and 7 regularly during the course of short walks around Reedsholme and Crawshawbooth.
Hi Bob, I'm not getting out at the moment, bogged down with lots going on but will make a concerted effort this week......
I am certainly not seeing any substantial Starling movement from my brief visits to the front and back door of the house.... but noticing that local Starlings are now carrying nesting materials to their proposed nesting sites....
The Blackbirds we have just around here are well and truly paired up now, and I am thinking that the collective birds you are seeing are possibly returning migrants, the timing would certainly tie in with all the other reports...
