The Face in the Flock

What it looks like, and what it does

A great dark cloud of starlings over a reed bed, thickened at points into a brow, a nose, a mouth, a gaze. The face lit by the last orange light. Watchers in a field below with their heads tilted back.

Gathers at dusk from October to February. Holds the face for about a minute. Disperses all at once.

What is known

First noted at Eastmere in 1986: the starlings formed a child's face. They have since been tracked from year to year. By last winter it was a woman of about fifty.

A retired police artist drew it in 1998, and the portrait was circulated. In 2011 a woman in another country recognised herself. She had never been to Eastmere.

What it can do

• Shapes a murmuration into a recognisable face
• Ages the face one day for each of ours

Where it stops

• Forms only at dusk, in autumn and winter
• Cannot hold the face in wind

An encounter

Marr sketched the face in four strokes and held it up to the sky. It was the same woman, a little older than her drawing. She wrote on the margin, “Eyes are the same, mouth is sadder.” The next evening the mouth was not.

Cecilia Marr, retired police artist, The reed beds at Eastmere, A calm evening, November

What is established, and what is only said

• established: Annual sketches from 1986 to last winter show a consistent subject ageing in step with the calendar.
• incomplete: The woman who recognised herself has declined to be named. Her photographs at the relevant ages have been compared to the sketches, and agree.
• interpretation: It may be a likeness of someone who will be. It may be a likeness of someone who was, and who has lived ahead.

Still unresolved

The woman is alive. The face is now twenty years older than she is. She asked whether she might visit it.

Where it has been recorded

• Eastmere (confirmed) — Recorded by Cecilia Marr, retired police artist.

Stories about it

• Look Up Over Thorne End (Grotesque encounter, 4 min) — At dusk the starlings above the reservoir gather into a human face that is a little older each evening, and the schoolmaster who has been drawing it is starting to recognise the eyes.

Connected entities

• Frame Four — Both are faces that come toward the person they resemble. Both are older than they should be.