Project two: Murmurations
Mike Harris shows you how to capture one of the UK’s most incredible wildlife spectacles
Before spring kicks properly into gear and the landscape bursts into a cacophony of vibrant colours and new life, you might just get the chance to witness the tail end of one of winter’s greatest wildlife spectacles, the starling murmuration. This incredible event typically happens between October and March, and should be right up there on every wildlife photographer’s bucket list.
Around sunset, huge flocks of starlings gather together, and just before they bed down for the night, they murmurate, producing incredible abstract patterns in the sky, which are just begging to be immortalized by a Nikon photographer. The good news is that there’s nothing particularly technical about capturing these incredible displays and while fast glass will give you a helping hand, you can capture fantastic murmurations with any Nikon camera and a kit lens. It’s the planning and preparation that will make or break your murmuration shots, so make sure you know where you’re headed and arrive early.
1 Formulate a plan
Planning is the difference between witnessing a starling murmuration and missing one altogether. Murmurations take place roughly around October to March. We visited Somerset’s Avalon Marshes, but you’ll find murmurations all over the UK. Once you’ve settled on a location, further research will help you to gauge where the birds might roost. We phoned the Avalon Marshes starling hotline, for example, which informed us where the birds roosted the night before. Arrive well before sunset, so you’re set up before the show begins.
2 Lens choice
Murmurations move and change very quickly. Zoom lenses will afford you the most versatility, so you can zoom in and out accordingly. A 24-70mm and 70-200mm (35mm equivalent) will stand you in good stead. Fast f/2.8 lenses are preferred, so you can keep your shutter speed high and your ISO low as the light fades. These lenses are expensive, so a less versatile but still suitably fast alternative would be a prime lens or two, like a 50mm and 85mm f/1.8. That said, you can still use a kit lens, just be prepared to boost your ISO as the sun sets.
3 Camera settings
Switch to Manual mode and select a wide-open aperture. The shutter speed will depend on your focal length and how fast the birds are moving – we wouldn’t recommend dipping below 1/160 sec. Apply the reci
