Strange Murmurings at Gretna
Tens of thousands of starlings against an evening sky at Gretna, Scotland For those of you that follow my blog and my various other sites you will know that I live near to the Solway Firth in Scotland. It is a very important place for wildlife all year round but with winter approaching it becomes especially exciting. Although autumn this year in Scotland ended much warmer than usual the temperature has been dipping in some more northerly countries. When this happens the bird populations in places like Russia, Scandinavia and Greenland look for favourable wind conditions and make their great escape before it becomes too late and they lose that all important 'window of opportunity'. In recent weeks we have seen, along with many other species, an influx of wigeon, whooper swans and thousands of barnacle geese. We have also had an influx of starlings. Starlings can be found all year round in Scotland but when winter comes migrant birds can boost the numbers significantly.