STARLINGS OVER GLYNARTHEN

    Twice a day over the Autumn and Winter we witness a truly remarkable wildlife spectacle here as starlings passage towards and from the roost situated between Talgarreg and Mydroilyn.

    Glynarthen is some 9 miles south west of the roost and at this time of the year the morning flight occurs between 8 and 8.30am with many tens of thousands, probably some hundreds of thousands of starlings passing in waves overhead. The passage occurs in flights of varying sizes, some of less than a hundred individuals, but others very much larger, upwards of tens of thousands of birds. If you are lucky enough to be outside and under a big flight as it passes over it is a loud, physical, sensation from a myriad of wing beats. In calm weather the flights are closely packed, level and at a uniform height. In rougher weather, as during storm Eleanor this morning, they are more dispersed, lower to the ground and suffer a good deal of buffeting, though nonetheless spectacular.
    The flights are always fast and direct over Glynarthen and are, presumably, purposefully still en-route to feeding grounds further to the west as they travel over at this point in the morning. We have a smaller flock of starlings in the area, perhaps a hundred or so birds, and these seem to ignore the larger flocks over head and carry on feeding regardless.
     In the evening, currently around 4pm the flights are reversed.
     From our house in Glynarthen we have clear views up to the Sarnau/A487 ridge to the north and south to the Carmarthen hills across the Teifi valley. With binoculars we can see other discrete flight lines across the area and, as similarly noted by Ian recently, we have witnessed dispersal flight paths on our travels in other localities.
     It’s certainly the case that our observations of the starling flights raise far more questions than answers and if anyone is aware of any research into this phenomenon I’d be very grateful for a link to the same.
     Roger Watkins