What's the story with all the birds in the Docks?

dilallio

Was driving down by the docks this evening and noticed loads of small birds swimming in the docks. Well over a thousand.
I've never noticed this before.

Is it because of the recent freeze, or is there another reason?

Seaneh

Deja vu...

James Forde

Storms a comin'

*said in old man simpsons voice*

hyperbaby

I was wondering the same thing myself.
A few days after Christmas I walked down there and there was hundreds, if not thousands of birds there.

I noticed this maybe a week ago, it was dark and raining so i doubt many people would have noticed, was amazing how many there actually was.

Enclosure was full of them, all seagulls i think.

Put down the window and you could hear a lot of noise from them.

I taught maybe one of the trawlers that came in had some sort of problems which resulted in a massive scent that drew them in.

McTigs

i cycle home that way every evening and it's been full of seagulls a lot of evenings.

The first time i had the misfortune of having watched Alfred Hitchcock movie "the birds" the night before

i had this face :eek: on me the whole way home, nearly killed myself on the bike. not funny

ErnieBert

Birds in the Docks?

Maybe they are ladies of the night?





OK, I'll get my coat.............

dinneenp

last night there were thousands of them flocking in the sky doing maneuvers and ducking and diving. Cool to watch.

Must be 'that time of year' before something they do, not migrate,but obviously something they're preparing for I'd imagine. Ask a bird-person, they should know.

Storm 10

ErnieBert wrote: »

Birds in the Docks?

Maybe they are ladies of the night?



Im sure there are plenty of them down there as well :D

snubbleste

I heard aphrodisiac for seagulls was dumped in the docks, so that they'd spread guano all over the place and reduce property prices in the area :cool:

dilallio

I heard that they all moved from the bay into the docks when they read an unfounded rumour on Boards, that Galway Bay was closed for business.

_Whimsical_

Perhaps they're preparing for a take over...a "The Birds" style attack on Galway.

I live in an estate on the Westside of the city,it's quite a bit in from Salthil. Over Christmas I've noticed seagulls here for the first time ever. Sometimes there were maybe thirty or 40 swooping quite low over gardens. I presumed that the cold weather had driven them inland but maybe they have something else going on ATM.

harryd2

GULLCON 2010!

thesandeman

harryd2 wrote: »

GULLCON 2010!

Thats Sooo last year!

dinneenp

Taken from here
Each night over the winter, starlings gather together in massive flocks to roost. Before they settle down for the night they perform an aerial ballet known as a murmuration in which thousands of birds swoop and swirl across the sky as one, looking more like a single fluid creature than a collection of thousands of individuals.

A large murmuration can be a truly awe-inspiring spectacle that will have you reaching for your camera, but actually capturing the essence of such a dynamic display in a still image can be quite a challenge.

Starlings start to gather in small flocks in summer, once the young have fledged. At this time of year the fledglings still have their pale brown juvenile plumage, which can look almost golden in the evening sun.

As the year draws on, these smaller flocks gradually come together until by late November or December, swelled by migrants escaping the cold in Northern Europe, there can be more than a million birds in the largest roosts.

lavaghball

As a great man once said: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."