Yesterday my daughter and I were sitting on our back porch reading. It was about 4:30 pm and the day was one of those fall days that really wants to be a summer day - it was muggy, hot and taking a long time to be over. The sun was bright and out of the edge of my awareness I saw some shadows moving across the ground.
Looking up from our books we noticed a flock of Grackles swooping into the trees at the edge of the woods ... about 500 feet behind our house. The flock kept coming, and coming, and coming. They swarmed into the water oaks and magnolias. They flew right into the pines and sycamores and pecan. They swooped into the bird feeders and down at the pond and onto the bird baths. And they kept coming and coming and coming. They swayed on the flimsy leaves of the bay tree, and perched on the rosemary bush.
(Fortunately, my daughter has never seen Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" so she was enrapt; I was leery.)
I snuck quietly, stealthily into the kitchen to get my camera. The birds didn't seem to interested in m
y movements. But the ones in the yard did flutter up into some trees. Too bad my camera couldn't really catch the view of these trees simply filled up with large black birds! The whole experience lasted about 45 minutes as they absolutely stripped my feeders of all the seed, and emptied the bird baths of water.It's funny, I don't normally like Grackles. They're loud and noisy. They are messy. They chase off the other birds. The don't make beautiful songs (at least not at my house) and they've got this rather creepy, intense yellow eye in their dark head that gives me the impression that they not only see me but they also know what I'm thinking. It's very weird. But when they swoop in with such large numbers, and grace me with their presence, well, I feel compelled to like them a little bit.
And it turns out, it's not so hard to do.
(p.s. if you click on the photos they get larger and you can see that eerie yellow eye!)
I get the occasional starling invasion in the lot behind my office. Noise not so much the problem as numbers. You can see the doves coming in on final approach for landing, and then at the last minute they wave off and fly away. I just know it's because of the huge crowd of starlings, which ticks me off. I like the doves better.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny I became interested in birdwatching about three years ago, and heard a lot about Starlings but never saw one. For the longest time, I would look and look, especially in my travels because for some unknown reason they just don't frequent this part of North Florida.
ReplyDeleteLo and behold, in Central Park this past May I saw this gorgeous bird .... and sure enough, it was a Starling. A funny breed to put on my "Life List" at that point. Now, I still don't see them here, but do see them lots of other places, and noticed giant swarms of them in Seattle in August.
I have Mourning Doves who frequent my back yard. They're funnily clumsy, like old fashioned bombers. But make a lovely soft cooing. They are, sadly, very often the food of choice for juvenile Hawks and Osprey.
Ah, the Circle of Life. :)
I did a Fray post once called "Predator and Prey" in which I told the story of the cell phone tower in my office parking lot. It had become the perch of a peregrine falcon, presumably one of the re-introduced to Chicago peregrines, hence it was a bizarre sight. First one I ever saw in person.
ReplyDeleteShe was staring at a bunch of starlings and mourning doves pecking around on the ground from his vantage point 90 feet up (he/she...who can tell with falcons?)
He finally took off and started circling upward, and upward,and upward. I was out in the lot watching him, as my neighbor had alerted me. The upward spiral, I came to later learn, is something called "The Stoop."
Just when he was almost out of sight, being so high up, he momentarily froze, and then....straight down. Couldn't fuckin' believe what I was seeing. SCREAMING straight down. And then it dawned on me. Uh-oh...one of these ground feeders is in serious trouble.
When he was about 50 feet off the ground, the doves and starlings freaked out and tried to scatter, but it was much too late. One dove, we'll call him lunch, got about 10 feet off the ground when BOOM! ....an explosion of feathers. He never had a chance. It was sorta sad, but awesome. I never saw anything outside of an Indy car move that fast.
That set me on my way to investigating peregrine falcons. Fastest animal on earth.
Yes, I'm not sure about the sex of those predators either. I know they do it because I'm lucky enough to live near an Osprey Family and a Red Tailed Hawk Family and every year they each raise two young'uns.
ReplyDeleteWhen driving across the Dakotas and Wyoming and Montana this summer I kept my eyes peeled for a Peregrine Falcon. I would love to see one in person - their pictures are so majestic.
It's funny when you say "SCREAMING straight down" because I don't know about the Peregrines, but the hawks actually do scream when they come down...right at the end. It's like they want the birds to lift off the ground for better catching, because about 50 feet up they let out a scream and everyone flaps and then BOOM! (you're right it's a BOOM!) there is a heap of feathers and everyone is gone.
Almost like a cartoon. Or like "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" (which I watched religiously as a kid).
I'm going back now to read that link on the re-introduced Falcons in Chicago. Thanks!
We get a lot of green parakeets - which actually make more noise that starlings. They look nicer but they are every bit as much of a predator & pest
ReplyDeleteGreen Parakeets??? Where do you live?? I think I would probably like them (for a while) because parakeets remind me of the little budgie I had as a kid!
ReplyDeleteAre you in Florida? Recently I was visiting my brother in Miami and saw some wild Parrots - that was neat!