{"id":328882,"date":"2026-03-04T18:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/328882\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T18:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:57:09","slug":"thousands-of-starlings-rise-in-murmuration-under-brilliant-worm-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/328882\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Starlings Rise in Murmuration Under Brilliant \u2018Worm\u2019 Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u2013 credit, Tony Nellis, via SWNS\u00a0<\/p>\n

These stunning photos show the moment a huge murmuration of starlings flew in unison across March\u2019s full moon.<\/p>\n

Remarkable pictures show a flock of thousands of starlings as they swooped across the skyline as the Moon reached its peak.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2013 credit, Tony Nellis, via SWNS<\/p>\n

March\u2019s full moon is known today as a Worm Moon, as it signals spring\u2019s arrival when beetles and other animals emerge from winter hibernation. There are many other recorded names<\/a> for the March moon, including the Sugar Moon.<\/p>\n

The Ojibwe called it thus because it was the time when, provided a maple tree was tapped, the sap which had been too cold during the winter, would begin to run again.<\/p>\n

In the UK, photographer Tony Nellis captured the starlings on the wing as the Moon rose over South Shields, Tyne and Wear, last Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t help think of the phrase \u2018the early bird gets the worm\u2019 when I saw the murmuration of starlings flying over the Worm Moon,\u201d he said. \u201cI took loads of pictures of them in the sky and suddenly they swooped down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many birds, the moon was almost blocked out with thousands of starlings silhouetted against it. It was an amazing sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

On American shores, the full moon didn\u2019t appear until Tuesday morning, when it coincided with a Lunar eclipse<\/a>, known colloquially as a \u201cblood moon\u201d which the Brits didn\u2019t see.<\/p>\n

SHARE This Beautiful Marriage Of Earth And Moon With Your Friends\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2013 credit, Tony Nellis, via SWNS\u00a0 These stunning photos show the moment a huge murmuration of starlings flew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1902,15638,61,60,3738,266,82,247,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-328882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-beauty","9":"tag-birds","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-nature","13":"tag-photography","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-space","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}