so far this year, there has not been much in the way of clear skies and sunshine. Certainly not on a weekend. So when there was a brief window of good weather on a Saturday, I used it for a trip to Lackford lakes. I was keen to see a starling murmuration, and I had read that Lackford was a good location. I arrived around lunchtime. The reserve was busy and I was lucky to find somewhere to park. I passed the afternoon photographing small birds around a few feeding stations.
People stated gather for the murmuration from about 3.30pm. The starlings started to gather from around 4.30pm. Much of the time the birds were overhead. On the plus side this, the sound of all those wings beating was very clear. On the minus side it was tricky to get it all in frame. I regretted not bringing my wide-angle lens. There were no raptors around, so the starlings only began to tightly bunch in the final few minutes. Pretty much on the stoke of 5pm, the birds dove down into the reed beds and the show was over.
