In a breathtaking display of nature, thousands of starlings lit up the night sky as they swooped in perfect synchrony across March’s full moon, also known as the Worm Moon. The phenomenon, called a murmuration, left skies glowing with life as the birds moved as one, creating a living, breathing silhouette against the Moon’s luminous face.
Photographer Tony Nellis captured the magical scene over South Shields, Tyne and Wear, last Monday evening. “I couldn’t help think of the phrase ‘the early bird gets the worm’ when I saw the murmuration flying over the Worm Moon,” he said. “Suddenly they swooped down, and the moon was almost blocked out by thousands of birds. It was an amazing sight.”
March’s full moon signals the arrival of spring, when beetles and other creatures emerge from hibernation. In North America, it’s also called the Sugar Moon, a nod to the Ojibwe tradition of tapping maple trees to harvest sap once the winter chill lifted.
Across the Atlantic, the Worm Moon coincided with a lunar eclipse in the U.S., giving Americans the spectacle of a “blood moon,” while in the UK, the starlings’ elegant dance stole the show.
The sight of these tiny creatures moving together in harmonious flight is a gentle reminder of nature’s beauty and synchronicity a moment of wonder to lift hearts as the seasons turn.