A mumuration of some 70,000 starlings above a Oxfordshire nature reserve has been described as a "ballet of the skies". <br />Dr Anne Goodenough, from the University of Gloucestershire, said the spectacle was "an absolutely fantastic phenomenon". <br />"I would defy anyone to watch this and not have a smile on their face. It's the sound of them beating their wings as one, moving together as one, and that's where the word 'murmuration' comes from - a murmour," she said. <br />The university is carrying out a survey to help establish the reason for the extraordinary aerial behaviour.
