Gretna starlings five years ago

My first visit to see the Gretna starlings was almost five years ago.  After yesterday's post I thought it might be interesting to compare with the previous pictures.  In those days I had a Panasonic FZ30 rather than a DSLR and it didn't cope well with the poor light.  Nevertheless the pictures are worth seeing.  I am told that the current murmuration numbers around 300,000 birds but that five years ago it was probably ten times that.  This represents a catastrophic decline consistent with other data from the UK and Europe.  The starling is on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

These pictures were taken in January 2010 at a gathering point and give some idea of the vast numbers.