This winter, a flock of starlings decided to roost in our hedge. There are a lot of them. A LOT.
Every evening, the starlings form murmurations directly above our house. They are majestic and mesmerising: streaming across the sky, swirling to form strange shapes, forming clouds that gather and pull in tightly together and then pulse out again more loosely, flocks splitting and recombining. The noise from thousands of wings flapping is very audible.
Every night, the whole flock of hundreds or thousands of birds (how do I estimate?) settles in our hedge. They chirp and scream - loudly. They produce an incredible volume of crap. After just one night, a newly cleaned car is covered in multiple splotches of bird poo. The hedge is covered in poo. The wall under the hedge is half an inch deep in guano. The smell is overpowering.
I uploaded three videos, along with a couple of pictures of the results. Gallery here
One video:
My questions: are they likely to go away in spring (or at least reduce to a reasonable number)? And if not, how can we get rid of them? I’d like to be able to use the garden in summer without everything being covered in and smelling like bird poo. There is also a distinct risk a bird will crap on your head if you are outside when the flock flies over (ask me how I know 
).
