Casual Friday: Starling Murmurations. (Hint: Worth Your Time. Trust Us.)

March 21, 2014
miproconsulting
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Stop by here most Fridays and you will see a personal story, a parenting lesson I clumsily try to tie to something that happened the previous week, or our thoughts on leadership, grit and management culture. Sometimes, even though I can’t believe it myself, cat stories.

Not today. Today is a different kind of tangent.

I was recently forwarded this video about starlings and the flowing, bobbing patterns they create in a group (called a murmuration, incidentally).

I get sent a lot of videos and links, and candidly, most of them aren’t worth a Facebook post. This one, however, is genuinely mesmerizing: I watched it twice.

For the uninitiated, starling murmurations are like daytime, avian versions of northern lights: a half million starlings, all flying in tight formation, all following an invisible atmospheric pattern they detect in the air. But the science gives nothing away to the result, which can only be described as art.

I’ve never seen one of these personally, but you know it’s on my bucket list now. Great reason to travel to the English countryside, yes?

So, that said, please enjoy this video (make sure your volume is turned up to hear the narration and music), kick back with your coffee or tea, and chill out for a few minutes. I’m not embedding it here because you need to watch this full-screen, and that link will launch YouTube’s large player.

Have a great weekend.

(Hat tip to Jeff M. for the link)