Murmur Nation

We used to call them Starling Roosts. Or Starling Flocks. Then, one day in the early 21st Century people who were non-birders started to watch Springwatch, Autumnwatch & Winterwatch. ( Why no Summerwatch?) This led to a surge in the numbers of people turning up on the Somerset Levels and even now the Axe Estuary Wetlands (Seaton Wetlands). "What time does the Murmuration start?" they ask you. "When do they all start murmurating?" "We're here to see the Murmur-urmur-atoring...". Never before has such an obscure word been transferred into the National Lexicon so brutally as this one. Even the absurd ubiquity of metatarsal when Beckham and then Rooney both broke said bone before successive World Cups cannot eclipse the now incessant chattering of old biddies muttering Murmuration all around the valley. It's almost become a kind of 'Dusk Chorus' to those of us who are still around at that time of day looking for owls and birds flying to roost.  "Ooooh...murmurmurmur...ohhh...murmurations....Whoooh..."