Starlings and More Starlings, Wellington St and Bayview Ave

Starlings just found a common place to gather.

October 31, 2020

Reading time: Less than 1 min.

Something has been attracting a flock of European Starlings to the Wellington and Bayview intersection area I heard. Well coincidentally, we encountered them last week as well when driving south on Bayview. They were flying around, sitting on the hydro lines and playing in the water puddles on Bayview. I don’t know what has been attracting them to the area. Perhaps they just found a common place to gather.

I did some searching and found out that when starlings flock like that in ‘fluid‘ formations, it is called a murmuration. The murmurations (photos) “can range from small groups of a few hundred starlings in a small ball to undulating seas of millions of birds that might block out the sun.” Also, National Geographic’s comment here (video), “what remains a mystery is how they fly in murmurations, or flocks, without colliding.”

Happy Halloween 2020.