Twilight Dance by Orio

Photography • Animals • posted on Jan 05, 2004

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Description

In the sky above Pisa, in the winter, every evening, flocks of literally *thousands* of European Starlings gather for the night. They come from the surrounding countryside, where they spent their day catching their food. Inthe evening they come back to the warmth of the city, where they spend the night. But before "bedtime", they make a dance in the sky that lasts very long, sometimes even half an hour. The first flocks begin the dance, and all the others join as they arrive. They make an impressive choreography, greating spectacular everchanging shapes in the evening sky. More than a simple camera, a videocamera would have been a better choice to capture the show. But a camera I had, and this is one of the moments. It is -I think- spectacular never the less. Just let your imagination fill what's missing: the fast turns, the flocks making different circles and rejoining, and so on. The European Starling is a migratory species. Their road used to be from Scandinavia to Northern Africa, but, with the civilization giving birth to warm cities, they started to end their migration in the cities of central and southern Italy, where they can find enough warmth and food. If you are interested in more information about the species, you can find it here: www.starlingtalk.com/european_starling.htm Canon EOS 300D with kit lens 1600 ISO thanks for viewing :-) (p.s. if you look closely you can see the Tower of Pisa in the background)

Comments (12)

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jerez

9:08AM | Mon, 05 January 2004

Elegant. I ,too, see the starlings here where I live, They do a dance at dusk and dive instantaneously into the ferry docks rafters. They also feed at my feeders just outside the wndow where my computer faces west onto the Sound of Port Gardiner. I have never captures this beautiful dance, this one of yours over the beautiful old city , is really elegant. ~Jerez

Rumple

9:31AM | Mon, 05 January 2004

I like the pattern of the flying birds, looking like a Japanese calligraphy. Well done !

Emberghost

10:09AM | Mon, 05 January 2004

Thats incredible, I envy your home. =]

davidm

10:43AM | Mon, 05 January 2004

What an amazing spectacle and a wonderful image! Thanks for sharing! :-)

Raven_427

11:20AM | Mon, 05 January 2004

This is a brilliant Orio! Not only did you capture those birds dancing, you even managed to get some mountains and the famous tower on that picture which (to me) adds a lot to the atmosphere. Very well done!!!

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