Empty nests: why UK's winter bird numbers are in sharp decline

Fewer and fewer migrant species, which used to be seasonal fixtures, are flying to our shores as the climate crisis takes its toll on their habitatEvery winter's evening, from November to February, one of the most dramatic of all our natural spectacles takes place on the Avalon Marshes, near my home in Somerset. Here, as dusk falls, up to half a million starlings - refugees from the far north and east - gather together in the skies, before roosting in the reedbeds below.Over the past few years, this has become quite a tourist attraction. On busy weekend afternoons, hundreds of people come to witness the starlings' mesmeric aerial displays, known as murmurations, as huge numbers of birds twist and turn against the setting sun. Continue reading...