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31

Dec 2024

Last Updated: 31/12/2024
Environment
Environment

Did our Ripon reporter witness a murder or a murmuration?

by Newsroom

| 31 Dec, 2024
Comment

0

ripon-30th-dec-2024-large-flock-of-birds
Murder or murmuration?

Yesterday morning, as the penultimate dawn of 2024 rose over Ripon, our roving reporter Tim Flanagan captured what he initally thought was a murmuration of starlings swooping above the A61.

However, after further research, he is unsure whether he saw a rare early morning display of aerial acrobatics from the small birds, or witnessed a murder of crows filling the sky in less synchronised patterns than their more nimble feathered friends.

ripon-30th-dec-2024-dawn

Dawn rising over Ripon

We have previously been sent photography from our readers featuring murmurations of starlings, which have taken to the sky at dusk from Ripon's wetland area, before returning to roost.

Now we would like to hear from bird watchers or ornithologists, if they are able to shed light on yesterday's dawn rising, which occurred in the sky between Ripon and Wormald Green.

For the Stray Ferret team, the jury's out on this, so perhaps our readers can give us their verdict.

ripon-30th-dec-2024-start-of-the-murmuration

Are these crows or starlings?

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