Murmeration

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.


My "Flight Pattern 22" or "22 Bird" piece was made to express just this kind of unexplained event. My friend Cathleen McClain sent this along to me after we were remembering our huge flock of starlings in downtown Hartford and had a weird bird encounter in West Hartford (although that was caused by a supergathering at bird feeders).
http://lightbox.time.com/2011/11/03/murmurations-spectacular-starlings-signal-winter-is-on-its-way/#1

Most of these sightings are in Europe, specifically the British Isles. I wonder if the flight patterns are embedded in some sort of collective memory starlings here don't have. Starlings in the US were brought to Central Park so that all the birds of Shakespeare would be represented there...same with "English" sparrows~ commonly known as house sparrows. Both breeds established themselves quickly and spread across the continent. House sparrows create a huge problem for bluebirds around here by taking over already occupied nest boxes, sometimes killing the bluebirds and breaking eggs in the bluebird nests.

When I lived in Hartford it was not uncommon for the huge flock of city starlings to be startled by the peregrine falcons that regularly hunted them. Sharp-shinned hawks also cruised through and suddenly the small birds would decamp from under the highway overpasses and find themselves clinging to the screens all over ArtSpace. I lived in a perfect spot to watch the spectacle. I could see the railroad bridge and Bushnell Park and watch the dance between resident birds of prey and the starling and pigeon flocks.

Around our bird feeders at home in Broad Brook things have been quiet. There has been no snow cover since the October snowstorm that devastated the trees and we are wondering if our birds from the "forest edge" like grosbeaks and indigo buntings will not nest in the changed landscape, that it will not provide the cover they are used to. Spring will tell. One of these autumns I want to travel to Scotland and watch the spectacle of murmeration.