By rights today I should have been spending a morning with a group of alpaca in Devon. Due to the wet and windy weather however we were given the option and took up the option to postponed this for a few weeks. I'd taken a days leave anyway, so to avoid wasting it after a very pleasant and leisurely morning by mid-afternoon we found ourselves at the RSPB Ham Wall reserve in anticipation of seeing starlings in full murmuration mode. We were not disappointed and from around 4.10pm they started to arrive in sizeable groups which then combined into larger formations over the reed beds. It is still early in the season but I estimated 75,000 birds, maybe more. We had a good vantage point at viewing platform one of not only the starlings but a number of mixed winter thrush flocks following the starlings, with the latter seemingly using the large starling flocks as an anti predator blanket of cover above while the thrushes flew lower. Good to see the starlings, redwing and fieldfare in good numbers, it's what I love about winter birdwatching, my favourite bird watching season which always rekindles my ornithology after a summer of abstinence.
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