Subject: [Tweeters] murder + murmuration = murderation?
Date: Nov 18 16:22:34 2015
From: Jeremy Davis - davisjp23 at hotmail.com


My wife and I saw the same thing happening outside IKEA on Sunday evening. It was great seeing all the shoppers - few of whom I imagine were birders - capturing the event on smartphones. Definitely a spectacle!

Jeremy
Kenmore, WA

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 18, 2015, at 4:17 PM, Nathaniel Peters <ncpeters at uw.edu> wrote:
>
> Hey Tweets,
>
> I was in Renton yesterday evening at dusk doing some furniture shopping, and when I exited the 405 I was presented with an awesome sight.
>
> Thousands of crows and tens of thousands of starlings were wheeling through the air in streams and waves or blanketing the surrounding trees and buildings. The sight filled the entire visible sky in all directions, which was particularly beautiful at dusk, and the cacophony of sound was tremendous!
>
> I pulled over my car, and took several minutes of video, which I am working on getting online.
>
> Whenever a murmuration of starlings would form in the air, the crows would go crazy and a murder or several murders would lift off and try to follow the starlings, albeit more slowly. The waves of both species would merge, split, dissipate, and reform. For a few seconds, the sky would be empty, and then everything would happen again.
>
> I had never seen or heard of anything like this, so I called it a murderation (murder + murmuration).
>
> Truly mesmerizing!
>
> Nathaniel Peters
> Keck Microscopy Facility Manager
> University of Washington
> ncpeters at uw.edu
>
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