Sometime ago, I saw a news story from Rome - it showed squadrons of people in all over protective body suits broadcasting bird distress calls from adapted megaphones. These human bird scarers were working to prevent large flocks of Starlings from settling on historic buildings.

Having seen similar flocks on the Suffolk coast, I was keen to see this phenomena for myself. In Suffolk, on autumn evenings Starlings can be seen circling in amazing formations of thousands of birds, before funnelling into the reed beds. In Rome the numbers of birds are even larger.

Consequently, when we visited Rome our itinerary, which of course included much of the usual tourist fare, oriented around seeing Starlings. Just as in Suffolk, during the day the birds disperse to feed and only congregate, as a defence against predators, before roosting. On our first day we barely saw a single bird before late afternoon and the light was already fading. We started to think that perhaps they had migrated or had even been permanently scared away and then to our great relief, suddenly they started to appear. First a few high in the sky and then more and more coming into the city from all directions. In greater and greater numbers, large flocks now joining-up with even larger flocks. As the birds get closer, you become aware of the sound of thousands of wing beats and of incessant chatter. The birds swirl very, very fast and change direction numerous times over. The skies fill and blacken as the birds gather and then at a given moment they all dive into the trees and the show is over for another day.

It is really interesting to see the human reaction to the birds, people appear either entirely unaffected or are completely enchanted by the spectacle. Needless to say, I was enchanted. Making these images reminded me of playing with iron filings and a magnet when I was a child, when I would try to create organised shapes, from the chaos of millions of black specks.