We ventured out for a day visiting Brighton as we hadn’t been there in quite a while. My intention was however to witness and photograph the starling murmuration at the old pier in Brighton. It had been an on-going joke that we were only likely to see a couple of starlings but never-the-less, we found a comfy(ish) spot and sat down as the sun neared the horizon (behind the clouds) and started our vigil. After a while we saw a small group of starlings land on the old structure and as the minutes ticked by I wondered if that was it but as we waited, more and more flocks of starlings seemed to appear out of nowhere and dive down to settle on the pier.

As the numbers grew, there must have been thousands on the ruin, I started to lose hope that they would perform – maybe it was too windy?, but then, just as I had given up hope, a few hundred of them rose into the air and formed a murmuration, accompanied by a chorus of ‘oohs’ from the expectant viewers waiting on the beach. It only lasted a few seconds, after which large flocks of the birds seemed to give up hope and fly off east to roost elsewhere. Once the light faded too much to take pictures of the birds I set off down the beach and entertained myself by taking photos of the pier and its many lights. Then it was off to find some food and drive home.

You can click on the below images to see them all at full size