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STARLINGS IN COLMORE ROW

C

colinwilliams1

Guest
Just watched a progranne last night with bill oddie how to watch wild life.

And he went near to the river seven to watch the starlings coming to roost about four o clock.

When we were kids and had been into town with mom and dad we would catch the bus in Colmore Row about the same time and in the winter the trees would be full of starlings and the noise was incredible.
It was brilliant.

I keep telling my wife about this but have never been back to see if it still happens.
Does it still does anyone know ??
 
Colin,

The sight of the starlings coming to roost in the city centre is a spectical I will always associate with my youth and early courting days. At the time the city council tried all sorts of things to deter the birds, as their droppings (the birds' not councillors') played havoc with the municipal buildings (and one or two of my suits).

Strange it should feature in a recent TV programme, as I've just been looking at some spectacular pictures of a similar event in the National Geographic, taken somewhere in USA.

Anyway, in short, the answer to you question is, sadly, flocks of starlings are not a common sight in Birmingham City Centre any more. :?
 
Birds...

:D I loved the Starlings and the noise they made, here it's Seagulls that flock around you in the city centre, not quite the same and the noise they make hurts the ears. :)

Chris :)
 
Starlings at the Town Hall

As ever, Bill Oddie's programme was excellent, and the camera shots superb, although I thought they might have done some digital enhancement on the flocks of starlings. [Never believe what you see on television, I say].
Five months after leaving Aston Grammar, I went to the only school reunion I have been to so far, which was a joint pre-Christmas event with ex-Handsworth Grammar girls. where I met a quality girl and arranged to take her out two days later, Thursday 21 December 1950. As she was interested in classical music and played the piano, I suggested we went to a symphony concert in the Town Hall.
She was just 17 and I was a few months older, and I think it was a new experience for both of us to do something as grown up as that. We were both on our best behaviour, and carefully dressed for the occasion of course. The only trouble was that as I got off the bus and crossed Victoria Square one of the starlings scored a direct hit on the top of my head, which in those days had quite a lot of hair on it. Worse than that, our seats were in the front stalls well visible from the gallery above, and I was convinced that I hadn't wiped all the offending substance from view, although I used every surreptitious way of wiping it off with my newly washed and pressed linen handkerchief - no kitchen rolls in those days!
No damage done, and we had a nice respectful relationship for three months, a long time at that age.
Peter
 
I remember walking up Colmore Row in the early hours of a summer's morning (like about 4 a.m.) after being at a night club, in the 70's...it, the nightclub, could have been down Newhall Street (can't remember what it was called now)....and the noise of the birds in the trees was so loud...
a nice memory that has stuck in my mind...
 
This thread takes me back a bit. In 1953 I was a young probationary constable working out of Steelhouse Lane, the old "A" Division. In those days, you had to be shown around by substansive constables, that is to say, they who had more than two years service. For the first month and a half of my probationary period, I was on nights, 10pm to 6am and worked every beat with a senior constable.
One night, I was informed, by my tutor that we had to try and dispurse the roosting starlings in the trees in Colmore Row. This came as a directive from the Council House...apparently! And this was to be carried out after 3am.
Of course, like the apprentice being sent for a lefthanded spanner, I fell for it and set to with my truncheon, wacking the tree trunks. The resultant noise, not to mention the mess, as the hundreds of thousands of startled starlings took off was something to behold. Mingled with the squarks - I faintly heard raucous laughter and the penny dropped.
I thanked my lucky stars that I was wearing my cape, against the rather chilly night and it was that, that caught most of the sky borne debris which had dropped from a great height.
It wasn't until later that I discovered I was wearing someone elses cape. I carefully folded it outside in and hung it up on the hook next to mine.
I often wondered how the owner of that cape (whose number/name I knew) figured out how his cape had turned white overnight - especially as it happened on his leave day.
The 'practice' was forbidden shortly after that, because the residents in the Grand Hotel complained about being woken up so early by the row. Apparently it was too early to get up and too late to get back to sleep...so they had to do something to pass the time away 'til breakfast. And that's when the rumour started about the cause for sudden increase in the population of Brum. But that's another story.
 
Hey Maz...was the nightclub 'Pollyannas'?
If so I remember drinking a pint of beer out a girls leather boot in there..
Trouble was, when you tipped the boot up it came out with a rush..I was soaked! plus I drank a mouthful of bunion plasters and assorted toenails etc..
 
Kandor said:
Hey Maz...was the nightclub 'Pollyannas'?
Yes, that's it!!
thanks...it bugs me when I can't remember things...
I've lost track of what happened to various places, including nighclubs...
..certainly don't hear Pollyanna's mentioned these days..
maybe we need a new thread on old Brummie nighclubs...so we can compare notes and find out what's happened to them...

er...drinking out of a boot ;D rather you than me :D
I remember getting out of drinking the 50? schooners at the Rose and Crown in Erdington once ::)
 
emmachisit said:
One night, I was informed, by my tutor that we had to try and dispurse the roosting starlings in the trees in Colmore Row....Of course, I fell for it-... I faintly heard raucous laughter and the penny dropped...
I thanked my lucky stars that I was wearing my cape, against the rather chilly night and it was that, that caught most of the sky borne debris which had dropped from a great height....

:2funny: :2funny: :2funny:
 
Yes I remember the starlings, used to work in an office on Colmore Row, and the amazing sound they made was high volume, that was in the sixties, it was very much part of the city. I wonder how they were eventually stopped from flying into roost.
 
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