Rare chance to spot starling birds 'dance' above Martin Mere this weekend

Wildlife enthusiasts in Lancashire are being invited to watch a ‘star’ spectacle this week, as a giant flock of birds prepare to dance in the sky above Martin Mere.

Tens of thousands of starlings are expected to take off for their annual murmuration over the weekend, which will see them fly together to create patterns and shapes in the sky - sometimes joined by migrant birds escaping cold weather in Europe.

This weekend, Martin Mere Wetland Centre is opening their Harrier Hide observation point to the public for extended hours to watch the spectacle unfold.

They expect to see an average of 50,000 birds - but in the past have seen more than 100,000 ‘dancing’ together at once.

“It looks like one big collective rather than loads of individual birds,” said Erin Cadley, who works at the centre’s reserve team.

“The sound is also really amazing. That’s why they call it a murmuration, because it almost sounds like a murmur, all those birds moving at once.

“When they all went down to the reed bed to roost yesterday, one of our volunteers described the sound as like someone turning on their hoover.”

According to Erin, the reason the birds gather together in the first place is to defend themselves from predators, and make it harder for them to be picked off one by one.

“When they do these big murmurations, it makes it difficult for the predators to know where they’re going next,” she said. “For peregrine falcons and sparrowhawks, when they come down to roost, it keeps them warm because there’s so many of them as well.

“A lot of people ask how they don’t fly into each other, because there’s so many of them and they’re all moving in very unpredictable ways.

“Some studies have used references to particle physics, and they found out that each bird actually influences the next seven birds around it, so there’s not a leader as such. They are moving individually, but influencing the birds around them.

“Imagine being in a concert, and it’s so crowded that everyone’s bumping into each other all the time. They are moving around like that!”

The Martin Mere Wetland Centre is one of wetland centres run by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, which works to restore and manage wetlands and their wildlife into the future.

One of the biggest ongoing projects at Martin Mere is restoring the local reed bed. At 20 hectares, it’s one of only 50 reed beds in the UK which can support breeding bitterns over the winter.

“At the moment, we’re doing a lot of removing and cutting down willow, because it started to encroach onto the reed bed, and we want to have as much reed bed as possible to support the bitterns that come in breeding here.

“We also do wild bird counts, so we can see how the population is doing; wild bird feeds and talks to the public, to educate them and get them involved in conservation; and we also do a lot of bird ringing here, which is basically a process of capturing birds, getting their biometrics like age, weight, and sex, and putting a little ring on their leg.

“It means that once they’re released, if they get recaptured by another ringing team, we can track where they’re going, which is really helpful for tracking migration and stuff like that.”

According to the Martin Mere Wetland Centre, the murmuration over the region isn’t expected to last very long.

As such, they are encouraging the public to take the opportunity to view the spectacle for themselves.

The Harrier Hide observation point will be opened until later hours over the weekend, and will close when the birds settle in to roost. The murmuration is expected to take place between approximately 4:30pm and 5:15pm.

All other areas of the centre will close at 4:30pm as normal. Anyone wishing to attend the murmuration will have to arrive by 3:30pm at the latest.

Wildfowl and Wetland Trust members get in for free, while a standard admission charge of £19 on the day for an adult, or £17.10 when booking online.