What an earth do “Starling murmurations and a film for Visit England….” have in common…? I hear you ask… well follow this, if you can…:)
While checking out on Facebook what the relatives in Australia have been up to (believe me… you really don’t want to know…!) I found a link to a film by Sophie and Liberty. It’s a “short film that follows the journey of two girls in a canoe on the River Shannon and how they stumble across one of nature’s greatest phenomenons; a murmuration of starlings…” You must watch it to the end just for the expression on one of the girl’s faces. You can find it here….
islandsandrivers.com/our-films/#murmuration
An hour or so later while ‘tweeting’ (connect with Real Staithes on twitter…) I came across another link to a starling murmuration film, the music choice was great…
So, as you do when it’s a cold February day, I did a Google search for ‘starling murmuration…’
The first link I click on was to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds they, as you would imagine have a great explanation for ‘why starlings do it..?’ one been for protection “…grouping together offers safety in numbers – predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird amidst a hypnotising flock of thousands…” you can read more about this incredible wildlife spectacle here… Sophie and Liberty are giving 10% of all profit from the sale of their DVD to the RSPB.
The second link seemed to ring a bell somewhere, “this astonishing sequence was filmed by wild life cameraman and travel journalist Dylan Winter who is currently sailing around the UK in an 18 foot boat. You can follow his journey and see more of his work at www.keepturningleft.co.uk” you can watch Dylan’s film on starling murmuration here… but the bell kept ringing, so a look at Dylan’s website, keepturningleft and it all fell into place.
After a busy day fishing, last August (2013) Sean was joined by Martin Dunford (Cool Places), Josh Sutton (Guy Rope Gourmet) and Jules Brown (North York Moors National Park & Cool Places) and a film crew (Audere TV). Once everyone was aboard ‘All My Sons’ Sean returned to sea for mackerel, while fishing the camera was rolling and Sean had lots to say… then on returning to harbour a fire and barbecue were lit. Then everyone got to work filleting, cooking, filming and quite a crowd gathered… as all this activity came to an end a sailing boat slipped into Staithes harbour… and Sean wandered over to say hello…. yes, it was Dylan aboard ‘Katie
L’.
I do believe Dylan and Sean had a drink in the Cod & Lobster at the end of the day.
If you are interested in learning about catching and cooking your own mackerel supper details about our trips can be found here… and Josh’s drawing of Sean’s way to gut a mackerel can be found here…
It’s it really strange, don’t you think… how things connect and come together…?
