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welcome to the reading rspb website
IMPORTANCE ANNOUNCEMENT:
Our annual Skittles match will now be held in Wallingford on March 1 - not the date previously advertised, please contact George Nobel for more information.
Also, a change of date applies to our popular mini-bus trip to the RSPB reserve at Arne. Due to a Family Wildlife Fun date being held on the date we originally had planned to attend, we have decided to change the date a go a week later on the 21 April. More details from Peter Scudamore.
Award to celebrate farmers who do great things for wildlife gets underway
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10 December 2012
The dark clouds gathering overhead this winter are part of an incredible not-to-be-missed wildlife spectacle.
Flocks of starlings, known as murmurations, are one of the UK’s most impressive winter highlights and can be seen now across the country. They can involve hundreds of thousands of starlings gathering noisily together at dusk and sweeping across the sky in a huge dark cloud of synchronised flight.
In the southeast, you can watch one of the biggest of these aerial displays, just off Brighton beach. Thousands of starlings gather and perform their acrobatics around the pier before swooping underneath to roost for the night.
Samantha Stokes, RSPB South East media officer, said: “The starling roost is a mesmerising natural spectacle and so easy to see. People come to Brighton especially to watch the Starlings swirling around the pier, and you can always tie it in with a spot of Christmas shopping.
“It’s like clockwork – you know that these black clouds will start to appear around dusk. Watching thousands of starlings move across the sky as one is such an unforgettable experience, it’s really magical to watch as more birds join the flock and it grows in size. Then you’ll notice small groups breaking away as they take it in turns to dive under the pier.”
The huge gatherings are at their largest in winter, peaking in December, as they are boosted by thousands of migrant birds visiting from the European continent for Britain's milder Atlantic climate.
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found a sick or injured bird?
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Just like us and our pets, wild birds can suffer from disease. Garden bird feeding can attract unusually high numbers of birds to a confined area, which enables disease to spread easily. |
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The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is the charity that takes action for wild birds and the environment...
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