As winter tightens its grip, an essential requirement for birds is to find a secure roosting place.

Tiny birds like wrens may gather together in nest boxes to keep warm. Starlings roost in famous places such as Brighton pier and the Somerset levels. They begin to flock together early in the afternoon, congregating in small pre-roosts before flying off to locations like Wandsworth bridge or trees in Kingston town centre.

Pied wagtails are well known for their night time gatherings in town centres which retain a degree or two of heat on cold nights.

Two birds I find fascinating to watch are gulls, mainly black headed, and jackdaws as they head off to roost.One of the best places to see them is at Morden Hall park,outside the cafe sipping a cappucino where above, both birds use very specific narrow flight paths.

Gulls fly directly into the setting sun with slow measured wing beats on their way to West London reservoirs near Heathrow for the night. Some fly in loose flocks but most keep in strict V formations, slipstreaming one another with an experienced bird leading from three to fifteen gulls or more.

In complete contrast, jackdaws fly fast below them in the opposite direction, heading south east to locations beyond Morden with rapid wingbeats,almost as if their lives depended upon it, as indeed they may.

In the morning, both species head off to their feeding sites in the opposite direction to routes taken the previous evening but in a less organised and more fragmented manner.