Brighton Marina: Starlings return for first mumuration

The birds, a favourite among birdwatchers in the city, flock together to perform their whirling stunts as autumn arrives. 

This flock grouped up near the Malmaison Hotel, soaring in the skies before settling on the masts of yachts in the Marina. 

Artist and co-founder of the Save Our Starlings campaign Steve Geliot said the murmuration was off to a "cracking start". 

Starlings group together in these displays, known as murmurations, across Sussex but the murmuration between Brighton Palace Pier and the West Pier is arguably the most famous in the county. 

The RSPB says starlings do this for a number of reasons, including safety in numbers. 

"Predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotising flock of thousands," said a spokesman for the charity. 

"They also gather to keep warm at night and to exchange information, such as good feeding areas."

The murmuration at Brighton Marina has begun earlier than the West Pier one usually begins. 

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Autumn roosts tend to start to form in November, although they have been known to begin as early as September and October. As the weeks go by, murmurations are likely to grow as more and more starlings join the roost.

The best time to see their aerial displays is in the early evening, just before dusk.

The number of starlings in the murmuration from Brighton Palace Pier to the West Pier increased earlier this year. 

Thirty one groups of starlings moving from Brighton's West Pier to the Palace Pier added up to 11,148 birds, carefully counted from ultra-high definition video in  March this year. 

This compared with a figure of 8,237 in 2022.

At the time, Steve said: “It is the first time we have seen such an increase in quite a few  years and goes against the long term trend of relentless declines that has been so sad to witness.

“If we all continue to love and support nature, then over a ten-year period we could well get back to the large murmurations we used to see in Brighton in the past.”