Starlings, Part Two: An English Story

I first noticed photographs like the ones above this year.  They depict large groups -- murmurations, to be specific -- of starlings in winter migration.  Such pictures apparently have been a staple of photography in Europe for some years.

From the photographers' vantage points at a distance or in airplanes, the views are striking compositions and make for beautiful shots of the bird formations.

On the ground, people sometimes tell a different story.

Recently, the English press descended on a street in Hereford, just west of Wales and northwest of Gloucester, to report the effects of a recent encampment of an estimated 20,000 starlings, who stopped for several weeks in Hereford in mid-migration from the Scandinavian winter to warmer climes in Northwestern Europe.

At that point in Hereford, the sky darkened like clockwork each morning and evening as the birds flew out to forage for food and then returned to their temporary roost, a large Leylandii hedge that separates a Heineken plant and a street of family homes.

The Mirror quoted Hereford resident Walter Bloomfield on the nature of the residents' complaints:

"There are thousands of them and the droppings go all over the garden and the house.

"The windows are covered in poo and a lot of the residents around here are having to get their cars cleaned all the time.

"When you go outside it is hard to avoid them -- you have to wear a hat or a hood to stop them messing on your head."

A Hereford car decorated by starlings

Some residents had taken to carrying umbrellas.  Others were said to be washing windows and cars daily.

(Americans whose children have played soccer on pitches fouled by Canada geese may sympathize.)

The starlings were expected to depart within a few weeks for the European mainland, but the residents had already begun to worry that the birds will return to Hereford next year.

In fact, Hereford is by no means the only roosting post for starlings.   There are reports of other murmurations, in numbers as great as 100,000, stopping to roost in Snape, Suffolk, Gretna Green and, most famously, Brighton Pier. What seems to have distinguished the Hereford situation is its appearance for the first time this year.

Heineken, which owns the hedge where the starlings were roosting, was caught in an uncomfortable spot between the residents of the affected streets and the concerns of British birders and the U.K. government.

In 2006, the British Trust for Ornithology reported that the country's starling population had declined by two-thirds in the previous 40 years.

The Royal Society for Protection of Birds, a private group, reported in 2012 the lowest number of starlings in the UK since its Big Birdwatch began in 1979.  During the period, the average number of starlings spotted in British gardens dropped from 12 to three.

(The British take their bird-watching seriously.  In 2005, the publication Bird Study reported the results of a 20-year investigation of nest-site competition between the common starling and the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The conclusion:  "A national decline in starling numbers and the reduction in nest-site competition may have contributed to the increase in nest success, numbers and habitat distribution of the Great Spotted Woodpecker in Britain." So, one point for woodpeckers, one loss for starlings.)

The belief is that the number of European starlings has dropped as acreage devoted to farmland -- which contains their chief sources of food, fruit and insects -- has declined in England and on the continent.  Since it is unlikely that European buildings and homes will be bulldozed and the land returned to faming anytime soon, a certain tension remains.

In Hereford, a spokesman for Heineken tried to strike a balance in comments to journalists.

"We want to help our neighbours wherever we can, but we also have a responsibility to the natural environment," he said, adding  "We're also working with a bird protection expert to make sure any proposed actions would not cause any harm or injury to the birds."

A "starling expert" from the Royal Society for Protection of Birds took a stronger tone.  "I can understand people's concerns," said Richard James, "but we would urge people to tolerate them if they can.  They are a species in trouble."

Next up:  The starling in America.