Starling army make themselves heard: Country diary 100 years ago

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 18 February 1916

The fury of the gale has abated, but the gusts, swinging the tree-tops, are still severe. There has been, however, less damage to twigs and branches than in earlier gales, not because the wind had less force but because the trees are now better able to withstand the assault. This morning the sun is lighting up the poplar tops, the pliant willows, and the red dogwood in the covert with a warm glow; the sap is running and the twigs are full of life and energy; they are now tough and elastic, not stiff and brittle, and the fierce gusts which bring down chimneys and hoardings bend but seldom break these healthy branches.

Writing from Whitchurch, a Manchester correspondent tells of a huge roosting-place of starlings, fifteen to twenty thousand arriving in about half an hour is his rough estimate. It sounds a large army, but I have known roosts in Cheshire, Derbyshire, and North Wales which were probably quite as crowded. When the birds had settled he disturbed them, and the noise of the rising multitude was like "some great waterfall"; I know the sound, which reminds me of the rush of an express train through a station. During autumn and winter the starling is one of our most sociable birds, and these roosts are the nightly gathering-spots for the birds, which during the day hunt over very many square miles of country. They are most interesting places to visit.