Starlings Sturnus vulgaris Gretna Dumfries Scotland winter - David Tipling/2020VISION
Created from a gravel extraction quarry, the 41ha Ripon City Wetlands is on the River Ure floodplain. It is next to Ripon Racecourse, about 3.5km from the cathedral and not the city park, which it name might suggest. A YWT reserve since 2019, it is a mosaic of habitats designed by Middlemarch Environmental and constructed by Aggregate Industries to attract birds.
Sara (right) on her first visit to Ripon City Wetlands with Howard and Rachel
On a bitterly cold day back in early January, I wrapped-up in an many layers as I could wear and still stand up. I was meeting Howard Roddie, the other new Telling our Story volunteer and Rachel Loffman, our YWT volunteer manager. We strolled round the site and agreed it was a magical place for our induction briefing to YWT and our roles.
The YWT website guide to the reserve says that it is good to visit all year round. In winter, the seasonal highlights are brown hares and foxes. In late January, I started to see Twitter posts about starlings murmurations there and I knew I had to go back sooner rather than later!
A carpet of roosting starlings, Photo taken by Sara
After just a short stroll from the car park to the lakeside, I settled down to wait and wait... I was with 20 other keen starling spotters all scanning the sky in hope. The question we were all asking was were there going to be any starlings? However, we need not have worried! First in small groups, then in hundreds, then in thousands - the starlings arrived…
They arrived wave after wave and settled in the reeds, just 25m away from where I stood and formed a carpet of starlings over a 100m long and perhaps 50m wide. It was quite dark when they finally settled down.
Thousands of starlings fill the sky, photo taken by Sara
It was such a stunning spectacle, I visited three more times during the early spring. I’ve no idea how to count starling numbers,but can easily believe the estimates of 100,000. Visitor numbers increased each time I visited, with around 100 people watching open-mouthed on my last visit. On that occasion it was as if the starlings knew that they had an audience, keeping us waiting until nearly dark; then dancing over the lake and plummeting to the ground in huge numbers.
Thousands of starlings arriving at dusk, photo taken by Sara
After enjoying my visits so much, I was keen to know what YWT volunteers have done to encourage the starlings. Rachel Green, who has been a YWT volunteer for 13 years and is now a voluntary trainee with the North Central reserves explained that the volunteers have a really important role in making the site stock-proof to allow belted Galloway cattle to graze safely and cutting back willow to stop the reedbeds becoming scrub. Rachel added that if anyone has a use for willow cuttings, they are available free for collection. She explained that the Yorkshire Dales National Park has recently taken some to use as river bank spiling.
It is the reedbeds newly cleared of willow that have attracted the starlings. They make a perfect roosting site. As Rachel commented, “It has been fantastic to see a murmuration, it is amazing!” She added that starlings started arriving before Christmas, and numbers grew and grew during January and February with the murmurations finishing towards the end of February and early March until the following year.
The Harrogate Supporter Volunteer Group clear willow to create the perfect roosting site for the starlings, photo taken by Rachel Green
Ripon City Wetland was constructed to attract birds and that has certainly worked for starlings. There is lots to see at Ripon City Wetlands all year round, but do visit next winter and early spring to see the spectacular starlings which is not to be missed! Why not find out how you can help protect our Wilder Wetlands in our latest campaign here
The starling murmurations are often seen from mid-January until the end of February, photo taken by Sara
