Subject: Starling speed?
Date: Nov 6 21:32:25 2002
From: Scott Ray - scray at wolfenet.com


In level flight, a starling flies 35 to 40 mph. However, I'd bet it can do
more than 60 mph in a live-saving dive whilst being pursued by a Merlin or
Peregrine.

Flying twice as fast as traffic on the viaduct might require considerably
less speed than 35 mph at times!

Of course, perspective can deceive the eye when comparing speeds.

Scott

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" Scott Ray "
" Moxee, WA "
" scray at wolfenet.com "
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-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Cliff Drake
Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 8:59 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: Starling speed?


Hi Tweets,

How fast do starlings fly? Come on you Bird bookers.

Speaking of swarming flocks of starlings in South Seattle, I was literally
guarding a rest room on the third level of the new Seahawks stadium today
and between 4:30 an 5 PM I started seeing large flocks of starlings doing
their flocking thing, mostly flying N. But the darker it got the straighter
their flight and the more directly N it was. There must have been
thousands, if not tens of thousands and they looked like were easily flying
twice as fast as the northbound traffic on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Some
were right next to the stadium some were barely visible dots over the
water.

Even watching starlings is better than watching a rest room.

Cliff

=======================
Cliff Drake
SW Ballard, Seattle, WA
cliff at cliffdrake.net