Friday 14 October 2011

Starlings in Brighton be Damned!

Or no Starlings in Brighton, as the case may be.

These days, I have reasons to be in Brighton, and although running 11 miles along the seafront and through the attractively obscure parts of town is very enjoyable, the wildlife as perhaps mentioned before, is a bit disappointing.

It's Herring Gulls, Herrling Gulls, Immature Herring Gulls and more Herring Gulls. Hovering into the wind. Mobbing each other for food. Mobbing innocent passers by for food, although without the savage and brazen intelligence of the gulls of Padstow that poach the 12 quid fish suppers bought from Rick Stein's posh chippy.

But I'm told that the Starlings of the seafront are a real spectacle. Every day, they gather in Hove in increasingly large flocks before making their way to the pier to roost as the twilight darkens. I believe they might even have been on a SomethingWatch programme a couple of years ago.

Well, wherever they may have been, I never saw them! Everynight before I arrived they were about. And then as soon as I left, they were back. But every night I was there, no bloody Starlings. Irridescent white spotted swine, I curse them.

In other news, I am hoping for Fieldfares and Redwing in my Holly tree now that autumn is here and I have a fine crop of berries, and spotted a large mixed flock of Pied and Yellow Wagtails I think on the wasteground by work. I wonder what my Autumn runs will bring me?

No comments:

Post a Comment