THOUSANDS of starlings flocking over the sea looked just like the Loch Ness Monster.

The stunning murmuration was captured by amateur photographer and bird watcher Bill Brooks.

Bill, 65, had been visiting Brighton to attend a photography course when he decided to make a detour to the Palace Pier.

He said: “I knew I had about a ten or 15 minute slot before sunset when the starlings would come in to roost under the pier and could murmurate.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be so spectacular.

“They swooped in from all over the area and formed this incredible shape right in front of me.

“The murmuration looked like a monster coming out of the sea to attack the helter skelter at the end of the pier.”

Bill, a retired environmental consultant, said the conditions had to be perfect for the starlings to form a murmuration.

He said: “I got very lucky. The conditions have to be just right for them to flock like this.

“It has to be dusk, and with very light winds. The conditions were perfect.”

Bill, from Felpham, West Sussex, added:”I don’t normally take my camera with me when I visit Brighton, but I am glad that I did on this occasion.

“I’ve only ever photographed one murmuration before and that was in Somerset.”

Murmurations can contain up to 100,000 starlings from a single roost and are formed when they all flock together normally at dawn or at sunset.

It is not precisely known why starlings murmurate but experts believe this may be for protection or to sign-post a roost.