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Sunday 20 November 2011

Slapton Ley - murmuration of Starlings

Yesterday a good Starling roost at Slapton Ley. But when confronted with numbers like this very difficult to know how many? At the time we guessed about 20,000. However, took some high-res (16mp) shots of the flock - some sub-sampling back home on the computer (using on screen grid at 100% resolution) came up with a better estimate of 30,000 and more arrived after the shot was taken! Predators attracted to the roost were a Peregrine and Sparrowhawk.

Earlier while talking to Perry at the bridge a Bittern flew over from the higher to lower ley.