Starlings - Friday 26th. Nov. / Saturday 27th.

I have been looking out for starling roosts for some time. Last week we went down to Plumstone Mountain near Haverfordwest to look at the one there. Unfortunatley from where we looked - the top of the 'mountain' the starlings were coming in low over the land and going straight down to the trees where they were roosting. No chance of 'patterns' in the sky.

In Teifi Marshes John Thomas showed me some video he had taken on Tuesday morning - a large roost of starling in the reeds. The weather during the week was not great so it took until Friday for me to get out and look for the starlings. John had told me that the roost was in the reeds between the dipping pond and kingfisher hide. When we got there about 4pm we could hear the starlings but they seemed to be collecting in front of the kingfisher hide. No great patterns in the sky - where are the raptors when you want them? This is the best I got at that time:

My Canon 50D with mini xoom 17-85mm at 17mm - ISO100 f4 @ 1/25sec.
It was beginning to look like the roost was in front of the kingfisher hide so we went down there and all the trees around the pond were covered with starlings:

Same zoom lens this time at 85mm - ISO100 f5.6 @ 1sec. Did not use tripod, just resting on the shelf in the hide so there is some camera shake.

All of a sudden all the birds took off and made for the reeds to roost. Decided to come back in the morning to see them take off. So this is them taking off about 7.45am. Just a straight shot - I would like to play about with shutter speeds etc to get more movement, but the battery packed up so I was pushed to take any shots:

Same camera and mini zoom at 17mm, ISO1000 f5.6 @ 1/60sec.