Murmuration Madness
March Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Movement”
Moves that make you go oooooh!
A murmuration is a symphony of movement in the sky.
Moving at lightning speed, like a swarm of giant bees dashing across the horizon, murmurations happen when starlings gather, usually at dusk, then take flight en masse in a dizzying, dazzling, swooping, swirling, aerial display.
To the naked eye, it’s as if the individual birds move in many different directions all at the same time and are bound to collide: but, miraculously, they don’t. Instead, they perform high-speed, precise, and instinctive micro-movements, turning potential chaos into poetry in motion.
Murmurations happen each year during the autumn and winter months at sites throughout Britain when flocks of anything up to 100,000 birds gather on cliffs, in wooded areas, or on man-made structures like the pier featured in the photo.
No one knows for sure the reason why the starlings indulge in this spectacular group behavior, although there is speculation these birds flock together to stay warm, ward off predators and share ideas about food!
I wonder what else they may have to say to one another. Is there a mystery behind the mad dash across the sky? After all, it is said that murmuration is unique and belongs to the starlings alone.
What do you think?
With thanks to Mary Chang Story Writer for the inspiration to move you with words in the March prompt on the theme of Movement and to the storytellers who move and shake us with the power of their words including Sandi Parsons, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Penny, pockett dessert, B.R. Shenoy, David Acaster, Sherry Kappel, Denise, Hollie Petit, Ph.D., Mia Verita, Shereen Bingham, Gauri Sirur, JoAnn Ryan and Kris.
Thanks for reading.
