The synchronised manoeuvering of a huge flock of starlings at dusk, known as a murmuration, is one of the greatest of all wildlife spectacles.

The Somerset Levels and Brighton pier are famous locations to see their roosting activities but the birds at Wandsworth bridge put up a pretty spectacular performance on a late winter's afternoon.

From a distance starlings may appear rather drab but their plumage is in fact most attractive as the accompanying picture shows being golden flecked iridescent shining black, suffused with green and purple dependant upon how the light catches it.

Our resident population is joined in winter by birds from the Continent and this year there appear to be many more than usual.

My favourite place to watch them at this time of year is alongside the round pond in Kensington Gardens. The water there is thronged with swans, black-headed, herring and common gulls, Egyptian, Canada and greylag geese, coots and assorted ducks.

But a special attraction lies in the hordes of starlings parading around the margins awaiting bread thrown by tourists, showing no fear scurrying between our feet or bathing en-masse at the water's edge.

There are many more collective nouns to describe groups of birds including 'A charm of goldfinches' and 'A murder of crows'.

I have coined a few hopefully descriptive examples myself including 'a jabber of jackdaws'; 'a serenity of swans; 'a quarrel of coots'; 'a symphony of skylarks'; 'a panic of peregrines'; and how about a pestilence of parakeets'?

Readers may have some more?