I cannot quit watching this.

Check this out!  It's perfect order, then it changes, then perfect order again but different..... Kind of like life.
This is mesmerizing.

Rather dizzying, isn't it?

For some reason I thought Ricky would find this most interesting. Not sure why he came to mind when I saw it. Strange huh?

He might, but I never see him in this area.

Ok. Now I saw it. And watched it three times in row.

There is a pattern, then it goes away and then it comes back again, then it goes away and everything is all mixed up and suddenly there is beautifull pattern again.

This is brainsmashing.

This is as mesmerizing as watching videos of certain seafish species that are swimming in a perfect spiral rhythm... like every single fish was a part of a well designed machine.

Birds can do that too. I could watch these for hours.

Being a "bird nerd" I know that phenomenon with starlings is called "murmuration". 

And if I could I'd nuke them all.  Starlings are an invasive species to North America and they are aggressive, descend in droves on bird feeders, drive off all the other native birds and shit all over the place.  I mean they raid feeders by the dozens and can easily finish one off in minutes.  I hate the bastards and I'd shoot them if I didn't run the risk of hitting my neighbor's house.

tohostudios wrote:

And if I could I'd nuke them all --- I hate the bastards and I'd shoot them if I didn't run the risk of hitting my neighbor's house.

I just could´t find the perfect smiley from the flock.. so let's just go with these.




Ok. Nuke them. But let me watch them at least 10 mins before that. Then you can borrow my Benelli and blast them in those perfecly balanced formations.

Sorry bro for waking up the angst.

Seriously, starlings are the bane of bird watchers because once those ugly thing descend on your feeders all the "cool birds" take off and these invaders will eat everything.  Besides causing a real racket because they even fight amongst themselves.  It might be different if they were colorful or something (but I doubt it) but to be UGLY and behave that way is just beyond the pale.

And they know people hate them; they are the most skittish bird species I know.  They will take off as soon as they even think you've spotted them.  I'm sure it's learned behavior passed on for generations.

The murmuration thing is cool I'll admit but that's about all those damn birds are good for.

I guess I have the same feeling about terns. They come in flocks and take over your beach in a minute and then you just cannot walk there because they attack you and drop tons of s*** into your head. One aggressive son of a ****** they are.

And they don't even do those pattern flies.

BloodDivine wrote:

I guess I have the same feeling about terns. They come in flocks and take over your beach in a minute and then you just cannot walk there because they attack you and drop tons of s*** into your head. One aggressive son of a ****** they are.

And they don't even do those pattern flies.

Sounds like the same thing except starlings will take off if you even tap on the glass of a window looking out on where they are.

I've seen that bird phenomenon before, but I don't think it was starlings. I'm not sure we have them in our area.

As far as birds that are pests in our area, it's Canada geese. Those things get all over the place and crap everywhere. They are all over the place in our business park right now. Sometimes I have to darn near kick them out of the way to get to the door. Occasionally one of the most fly into the power wires, short them out, and power out for a while.