Secret Murmurings

Have you heard the 'secret' murmurs? Those late afternoon whisperings in the etherial towers above the fine city of Norwich? Whatever can it be?

So choreographed that one  could remain completely oblivious to these hushed exchanges. Such susurrations that might remain hidden in full cosmopolitan view, gathering in meteorological impetus as the day draws to its wintery close. Should happenstance chance to find you standing upon St Stephen's Street in the dying embers of the day, pray raise your eyes to the heavens and prepare to be amazed!


22.12.2014 at 15:25

Admittedly it's not one of those Bill Oddiesque moments, whereupon the sky darkens as if in holy portent. The plague-like proportions might be somewhat depleted, numbering into the thousands, rather than the hundreds of thousands. Far more an exquisite miniature than the bolder impasto statement. 

It would have been perhaps mid-October when I first noticed a small murmuration, twisting its multifarious knots upon the wide blue canvass. A flock of a couple of hundred Starlings, whirling in highly synchronised pre-roost anticipation. Then nothing further was noted for a few weeks. The city appeared once again bereft of performance.



Many thanks to Beverley Goodwin

On 28th November the 'returning' aerial spectacular had drawn a small audience. The knots had evolved into something more complex, the writhing rope was more robust. Shortly after 15:10 the mass-complete was sucked from the heavens, with a ferocity that might well have left a gaping vortex above the city. The chattering mass slipped into the vented roof above Poundland, south side of the street. I was there the next day at the same time, and the next. Nothing!


22.12.2014 at 15:26

'Twas 15:30 on the 19th December, before I managed to reconnect. This time the ballooning mass was constantly drawing in smaller parties of thirty, fifty, ninety, two-hundred or so. 'Twould swoop below the city skyline to re-emerge somewhat depleted, then gradually re-establish its mass, as if through some form of inverse centrifugal motion. I think the murmuration is currently maximising at something in the region of 4,500 birds.

I'm planning to keep an eye upon the sunset skies above St Stephen's Street, hoping that this living cloud might yet multiply further.