Shape-shifting stars of show
Pareidolia is a word that never appears on Scrabble, but scores points for vocabulary skills when dropped into polite conversation.
To understand its meaning, look up at a sky with fluffy clouds or visit a reedbed on a late winter’s afternoon and behold some of nature’s most enthralling phenomena.
Turning cumulus clouds into the head of our late Queen or a pod of dolphins is one the quirky things we can do when weather conditions craft sculptures in the skies.
Simply put, pareidolia – from the Greek for “beside” and “image” – means discovering likenesses in other objects, be they natural wonders or inanimate, everyday things. Hence, the Man in the Moon, Elvis Presley on a slice of toast or a smiley face in a cappuccino.
Yet, to be truly enchanted by pareidolia, visit a starling roost where birds’ shapeshifting aerobatics will send the retina on a psychedelic trip.
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Such mass gatherings allow birds to keep warm as well as impart information about prime feeding areas. Before settling down for these nightly gatherings, starlings produce a “son et lumiere”, known as a murmuration, to deter predatory sparrowhawks and peregrines from turning roost time into a mealtime.
Earlier this month, I spent a spellbinding hour at Tring Reservoirs in Hertfordshire to enjoy an impressive murmuration experience.
The curtains went up at sunset as squadron after starling squadron began skimming across the waters towards their reedbed bivouacs.
Soon, 40,000 birds had coalesced into a heaving, heavenly shoal, creating patterns that morphed into definable shapes – one second a dinosaur, the next a bowler hat and then a pulsing heart.
Miraculously, the birds never once collided as they swirled and twirled like iron fillings being choreographed by some giant magnet.
This winter, as many as 16 million starlings – our native population boosted by large numbers from Europe – have been putting on displays at an estimated 1,200 roost sites dotted around the UK.
Check online for the nearest to you at lancswt.org.uk/where-to-see-starlingmurmurations
Birds swirled and twirled like iron fillings moved by a giant magnet