Starling Dance

Walking home from work Laura and I spotted a large cloud of Starling swirling, calling and trailing across the sky over Sainsbury's in Norwich. The flock of c2000 Starling skitted about for about 10 minutes before all diving into a couple of trees on on Grove Road. This spectacle I've seen over the reed beds of the Broads a couple of times but never before in the city, and it captivated Laura.
Yesterday I finally made it down to Whitlingham, despite hoping to visit my local patch atleast fortnightly this year this was my first visit of the year. It was rather quiet, not to mention cold. Most of the wintering wildfowl appears to have moved off and a failed to connect with the Siskin, Redpoll, Finch or Tit flocks, with just odd birds. That said the 80+ Teal in the conservation area are worth noting as were the 2 female type Goosander asleep against the island. The bird of the day though was probably the single Dunlin wandering on the shingle spit of Thorpe Station Marsh, viewed across the river from Whitlingham. The Great Crested Grebes have started to pair up and we watched one pair as the performed there weed dance.