It's another glorious morning here in the valley with warm sunshine, a few fluffy clouds and almost no breeze.  It's a little too bright for good fishing and the river has dropped from its best overnight.

I went out later last evening to shut in the hen and was stopped in my tracks by the cacophony that was coming from the large hawthorn on the green outside the house.  This sounded like something from Hitchcock's "Birds" with an almost deafening roar of fluttering wings and tweeting.  On shining a light into the tree I could see what must have been hundreds of starlings all settling down to roost.  Many of these seemed to be pale coloured youngsters which, disturbed by the light, took wing and flew in a cloud above my head before returning to the tree and resuming their chattering.  I have never seen so many starlings roosting so close to the house before and judging by the large number of young present starlings in this area at least seem to have done well this summer. 

Perhaps this is another creature that has benefited from the wet weather of the past couple of months.  Since they feed mainly on invertebrates such as leather jackets it's possible that the wet conditions have forced these closer to the surface of the pastures round here resulting in a greater supply of food and an increased success in brooding young starlings.

The noise would have been unnerving for anyone unfamiliar with the social habits of starlings.

Ian