Starling Assemblies Writing about the assembling of starling flocks before
going to roost, a reader who lives in Hampshire remarks : 'Close I to our garden there are several large trees, bare of leaves, to which the starlings come before it gets dark. We watch the groups arrive between three and four o'clock from every direc- tion and settle on the trees and on the field below. Among them is a whitish bird, I suppose a starling. There are so many that in the dusk the trees have the appearance of being in full leaf. Every few minutes a group will fly off in a circle and return to the trees. By four o'clock there are countless numbers on the trees, sitting still. Then, at five minutes past four. I suppose at sonic signal, two great clouds of thousands of birds darken our garden by flying away to the roosting place—about two miles away—in a group of evergreen laurel bushes, much to the annoyance of people living near.'
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