Over the last few weeks, people have been getting all of a flutter due to the mesmerising Starling murmuration at Shell Bay, Studland. Since late December the flock has been growing as have the crowds of onlookers all waiting in anticipation for one of natures best and most spectacular events….but what is a Starling murmuration?

A murmuration is a large gathering of Starlings that forms at dusk before they all drop down into reedbeds, urban tree lines or dense thick hedgerows for the long cold winter nights. The ‘murmur’ is said to relate to the noise the birds wings make as they pass at close quarters, as for up to half an hour prior to them entering the roost they perform an incredible show of twisting and turning acrobatics, never once colliding with one another and all in perfect sync. The performance its self is enough to satisfy most peoples nature fix but the inquisitive amongst you will be asking…..why do they do this? Well, the murmurations in fact has several main functions. Firstly, you’ll only ever see these murmurations during the winter as Starlings from central and eastern Europe and even Russia join our local birds as they escape the cold that grips those areas from November through to February. You may have seen in the news recently that in central and eastern Europe at present temperatures have plummeted to minus 20 in some places, which would explain the increase in Starlings we’ve seen here in Poole Harbour. As you can imagine, sitting in a reedbed all night in the middle of winter is going to be pretty chilly so one of the main functions of the murmuration is to build body heat in each individual bird, which will collectively with all other birds in the roost act as one giant heater amongst the roost. That’s why it’s important to have so many birds roosting together and why the murmurations can get so big. Secondly, the murmuration is a social event and as the Starlings fly around they’re vying for position with the adult males making sure they enter the roost first as it’s the warmest safest place to be thorough out the night, followed by the females and then 1^st winter (youngest) birds. Thirdly, murmurating will obviously attract some unwanted attention in the form of Sparrowhawk, Peregrine and Merlin, so the bigger and more complex the flock looks the more difficult it is for a predator to penetrate the flock to take a single bird.

Starling flock – Shell Bay Studland – Jan 2017 – Paul Morton

The roost at Studland is by no means new with Starlings roosting there pretty much every winter since the late sixties. However the size of the flock can vary greatly depending on conditions in mainland Europe with just a couple of hundred which will go unnoticed to most people, to a max roost count of 32,000 in the winter of 1994/95. The current estimate of this winters flock is approx 15,000 birds and the main bulk of the flock has been tracked arriving in all the way from Dorchester!

Starling flock – Shell Bay Studland – Feb 2007 – Phyl England

The Woodcock, there is no doubt is a mysterious bird. During the winter they hide away all day in large, damp, mature woodland relying wholly on their impeccable camouflage to keep them hidden and safe. At dusk (and we’re talking about 10 minuets before total darkness), they pluck up the courage to leave their day-time roots and head out to feed all the way through the night. With both these factors in mind, it would be sensible to say that not many people get to see a Woodcock. Not only are they shy, but cryptic too and shrouded in myth with the tiny Goldcrest adopting the nickname ‘the Woodcock Pilot’ as stories explained how they would arrive in from mainland Europe on the back of Woodcock arriving for the winter.

Yet, despite they’re secrecy, recently we’ve learning more and more about this species in Poole Harbour having studied their over-wintering population and by developing a new high tech surveying and ringing strategy.

Woodcock are now an almost absent breeder in Poole Harbour with the last known breeding pair to be found at Holton Lee. Their breeding population is also declining nationally and was recently estimated to be around c75,000 pairs which is a worrying 76% decline. Sadly they’re still legally shot despite this decline and their preferred breeding habitats are also under threat. However each winter numbers are swollen by arrivals from mainland Europe and Russia with an estimated 800,0000 – 1.4 million birds arriving, many coinciding their arrival with the first full moon of November. During the winter of 2013/14 we commissioned Nick Hopper to carry out a full Poole Harbour over-wintering Woodcock survey. The survey would see Nick monitoring and surveying all suitable Woodcock feeding grounds within our Poole Harbour area, as well as recognising dusk and dawn flight lines to and from their roots. Up until then it was unknown exactly how many over-wintering Woodcock resided in the harbour but after 6 long months of dawn and late night surveying an incredible 644 birds were found just in Poole Harbour….far higher than any of us were expecting.

Stour Ringing Group has actively been trying to track down and ring Woodcock within Poole Harbour for several years with limited success. Both lamping and mist net techniques have been successful but numbers of birds caught and ringed has only averaged around 10-15 Woodcock per winter. However, at the beginning of the 2016/17 winter period (October 2016) a new thermal imaging scope loaned by the Birds of Poole Harbour charity has revolutionised the way we now target and catch this species. What used to be a long arduous process at times, bumbling around in the dark with a torch looking for feeding Woodcock has now become a quick and more systematic process as one glace through the ‘TI’ scope allows us to see where birds are feeding instantly. With more birds now being seen and with our catching technique now up to speed in just two and a half months the Stour Ringing group have now already caught and ringed just under 60 new Woodcock which is fantastic.

The purpose for our ringing activities and this type of research is to a) prove winter site fidelity meaning, are Woodcock coming back to the same spots to feed year after year?….well, yes some certainly are. Some even to within the same 3m square patch of field! b) to find out what type of habitats they’re preferring to feed in during the winter which allows us to work on any future protection planning and c) to learn where Woodcock are most abundant so we can inform and let landowners know their land is an important over-wintering feeding ground for Woodcock because lets be honest, unless a landowner is wondering around in the dead of night with a torch and TI scope there’s no way they could know! The hope is to have caught and ringed 100 new Woodcock by the end of March 2017 within the Poole Harbour area, whether this is possible is still yet to be seen but there’s no doubt that by monitoring and learning about their winter ecology we could be playing a small but vital part in helping our UK breeding population.

The eggs of a rare bird called a Mediterranean Gull have been illegally stolen in Poole Harbour for potential sale to top restaurants for consumption, despite the practice being highly illegal and with no knowledge as to whether the eggs are safe to eat.

The discovery was made when a local charity called ‘Birds of Poole Harbour’ was carrying out a survey in early May on the non-accessible ‘Gull Islands’ in Poole Harbour, a historic breeding ground for the much commoner Black-headed Gull. The rare Mediterranean Gull, a relatively new coloniser to the islands is a schedule 1 species, meaning it has the highest level of protection under the wildlife and countryside act, making it highly illegal to interfere with their nests or eggs. During the survey it became clear due to the vast number of human footprints and high quantity of empty nests that the islands which have historically held up to 9000 pairs of Black-headed Gull and more recently up to 100 pairs of Mediterranean Gull had falling victim to egging, a practice that sees Black-headed Gull eggs taken for market to sell to top UK restaurants.

Paul Morton from the Birds of Poole Harbour charity stated…..

“the issue is that both Black-headed Gulls and Mediterranean Gulls look very similar, and their eggs even more so. So when an illegal egger goes out to the islands in the dead of night to harvest the eggs, the nests of the two species are so tightly packed next to one another other that there is absolutely no way of knowing which eggs are being swiped. Also, restaurants will have no idea that they may be selling the eggs of a schedule 1 species, putting them at risk of prosecution”

Black-headed Gull eggs are legally collected under tightly controlled licenses from Natural England at restricted locations around Britain, however there is strictly no egging permitted in Poole Harbour of any sorts. The eggs that are legally taken by licensed collectors end up in some of the countries top restaurants, but with only 18 people in the south of Britain licensed to collect Black-headed Gull eggs, it seems the profession is slowly petering out, therefor creating a potential black market for this product.

Paul Morton added….

“there are several causes for alarm here. Firstly, there is absolutely no licensed egging in Poole Harbour, meaning it’s highly illegal to take either Black-headed Gull or Mediterranean Gull eggs from the islands. Secondly, although the selling and eating of Black-headed Gull eggs is well known, there has been zero testing done on Mediterranean Gull eggs from here in the UK to see whether they’re safe for human consumption. Not only that, but if eating establishments are selling eggs labeled as one thing but they’re actually something else, I assume they could be in breach of several trade and standards laws, just look at the whole horse meat scandal.

Paul concluded – “my advice to any restaurant currently selling gull eggs is to ask their supplier if they’re 100% sure of the origin of their eggs and secondly, be very very sure you have no Mediterranean Gull eggs in your possession as this could lead to legal proceedings”

It’s currently not known where the eggs from ‘Gull Islands’ are being sold but the police have been informed to help get investigations underway.

Useful links

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/5065716/Top-restaurants-face-shortage-of-seagull-eggs.html

http://www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/delicacy-black-headed-gulls-eggs-84813

Medittaranean Gull – Poole Harbour – Peter Moore

Empty Gull Nest, Gull Islands