Clouds of starlings a stirring sight
Craig Jeffrey was out getting photos for his Facebook page when he stumbled on a stunning show of thousands of starlings flying across the sunset.
‘‘I’m out and about with my camera looking for content for my page and you know sometimes that can extend to the natural environment,’’ Jeffrey said. ‘‘I saw the starlings the night before but the light wasn’t right so I went down last night and it was a beautiful orange background.’’
Jeffrey, who runs the Extreme Weather Taranaki Facebook page, had never filmed or photographed the birds before and had to ask on his Facebook page what they even were.
The massive flocks of starlings are well known in New Plymouth and are often photographed as they fly across Back Beach to Motuotamatea Island off New Plymouth to breed.
The small birds will continue to make the journey until the end of summer when breeding season is over.
Forest and Bird chief conservation advisor Kevin Hackwell said starlings bred on islands or in trees to avoid predators.
‘‘It’s safety by numbers really,’’ he said.
Taranaki photographer Mark Dwyer won an award in 2011 for his shot of the clouds of birds which saw it published on the front of New Zealand Geographic magazine. He’d also never photographed them before.
‘‘I was just going for a walk with my son along Back Beach and saw it all going on and had my camera with me and got in to it,’’ he said.
Dwyer said the birds weren’t difficult to photograph but the lighting was terrible. ‘‘It’s pretty stunning to see.’’