08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks

Summary

We continue on January 8th where we will explore the mesmerizing flocks of birds in January. Discover the beauty of large murders of crows, murmuration of starlings, and V-shaped skeins of Canada geese. Learn about the rare and spectacular yellowhammer flocks and the colourful gatherings of greenfinches and mandarin ducks. Whether you're a bird enthusiast or just love nature, this article will help you appreciate the stunning flocks of birds this winter.

Article

January Flocks

Flocks of birds both large and small are one of the most attractive sights of January. Large murders of crows, up to two hundred, regularly congregate by the Windmill on Wimbledon Common. Smaller groups can be seen on many open pitches and commons. Finches may be mixing with tits and it is well worth looking for strangers in their midst. Even on garden lawns up to twenty or more blackbirds can congregate to check out rivals and identify possible mates.

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

Along the Thames, murmurations of starlings are noticeable at dusk on their flight path to their roosts. V-shaped skeins of Canada geese are common, moving to and fro between feeding and roosting areas. Black-headed gulls are doing the same. Richmond by the river is a good place to see some of these fly pasts at dusk as it is between the city and the reservoirs at Staines, where many of the birds go seeking a safe roost.

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

Lapwings, greenfinches, larks, linnets and even yellowhammers are also all still flocking. Of these yellowhammer flocks are the rarest and most spectacular. There are still regular reports that they do occasionally occur in the Ingrebourne Valley. Many of these winter flocks contain a fair proportion of juveniles, presumably learning where food can be found whilst being protected from predators by dozens of nearby eyes. It is also worth looking for bramblings amongst flocks of chaffinches, especially in beech woods.

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

They are similar to chaffinches, but can be distinguished by their orange breasts and bright white rumps, which are usually noticed as they fly away. Flocks of up to one hundred or more are reported from places such as Thorndon Park. Elsewhere in Britain flocks of bramblings have reached one hundred and fifty thousand and in other parts of Europe several million.

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

Their home is the vast taiga forests of northern Europe from which they only venture south when food becomes short. Consequently, we never hear them sing although when they do they have been compared to greenfinches. Sometimes they do stay to breed in Scotland where they are called the ‘tartan bird’ on account of having colours similar to the cloth. At one time they were eaten and said to taste “a little better than chaffinches”.

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

Goldfinches don’t seem to accept visitors wanting to join their charms. In Victorian times they were caught and kept as caged birds for their beauty, most dying quickly soon after capture. Quiet bullfinches are notoriously shy and tend to move around in pairs, calling regularly to each other softly. They were also kept as caged birds, as well as being killed to make fashionable bullfinch hats. Being good mimics, in captivity they were often taught to copy other birds.

Schools of gulls, mainly black-headed, are now a familiar sight on London’s commons and football pitches. Black-headed gulls are said to have arrived in London in the hard winter of 1898 when Londoners took pity on them and started to feed them in St James’s park.

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

Like other birds they may be seen on open ground taking advantage of either the soft earth which may contain large numbers of earthworms or perhaps just enjoying the safety of the situation. Resident gull numbers are also now swollen by other winter visitors. They too may also be joined by starlings, woodpigeons or crows, all looking for something to eat on the surface of the soil.

Gulls are especially common all along the Thames where small numbers of the more piratical lesser black-backed and greater black-backed gulls may now join them. The latter bird also congregates near rubbish dumps where they scavenge. In the hardest weather they all shelter under bridges and at dawn and dusk can sometimes be seen flying to and fro from their roosting sights.

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

Colourful flocks of greenfinches are occasionally encountered in parks. Even more colourful are the groups of mandarin ducks to be seen on Connaught Water. Other birds which roost communally this month include herons, cormorants and pied wagtails.

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

08-Jan The Beauty of Flocks Section Image

Flocks of siskins are particularly rewarding to watch. They look like small green and yellow streaked parrots with black foreheads and have the habit of hanging underneath the branches upon which they are feeding. They keep up constant conversation with each other with repeated calls which sound not unlike ‘tea-leaves’.

They were a popular bird to cage in Chaucer’s time on account of their good looks, mild manners, pleasant chattering and natural ability to settle down to a caged life. In these more enlightened times we can enjoy them all the more as they move in groups among the trees lining the river Colne or perhaps the wetter areas of Bushy park looking for alder trees whose seeds they seem particularly fond of.