Three days this week we could have been in the Alfred Hitchcock movie about the birds. Coming home from town, there were birds in the fields along the road. As the truck got closer they all rose up and took off across the road in front of me. I slowed and stopped and waited. There were hundreds of these black birds for as far as you could see and about half a block wide. The other cars were stopping for them, too. Twice it was out on the highway and once on our road. Last week they were flying across our neighbors back field and I tried to get a picture of them but they were moving too fast and either I just got sky or this blurry line. I finally found a place of the camera for moving things but of course they were gone. I guess I need to take the camera to town with us so when we have to stop and wait for them to cross the road in front of us maybe I could get a picture. I thought they were maybe boat tailed grackles but they don't look big enough for them. dooley
Starlings perhaps? Hitchcock used the nightly resting locations of migratory birds for some scenes in his 1963 movie. Jerry
Sounds a trifle scary! I hope you'll manage to get a photo of them so we can see them too. I'm glad the cars stopped for them.
The birds were back when we went into town this morning. I should amend the statement that there were hundreds of them to thousands because the sky is almost black with them. They fly in circles and almost cover the fields where they land. dooley
They are like that usually every winter.I do miss them.Dooley they are just plain old blackbirds. My dad used to use a 12 gage shotgun on them and we had a great lunch.
Same black birds here Dooley. They swoop in and the trees are covered with them in no time. And noisey! Oh my! Plus they will clean out a feeder in no time. Normally, I don't care what birds get something to eat, but when they come in like these... by the hundreds or thousands. It's time for action. I just pop a firecracker and they high-tail it to a different location.
The trees, power lines, tops of neon signs, roofs of buildings are all covered every evening around here with Grackles and other blackbirds of all sizes. When they fly in for the night sometimes you can barely see any sky, there are so many of them. I always look around for Hitchcock to see if he is walking down the street. They were joined by Starlings at this time of the year, there may be some Red-winged Blackbirds in the group too but they are too high up for me to see the coloring on the wing. Cheryl, those things cleaning out the birdfeeders is exactly why I only feed Safflower seeds now. They will not eat them and neither will the squirrels.
Safflower seeds huh? Going to put that on my list for the next time I need some more bird seed. I'm actually mad at our squirrels... they haven't been stealing enough pecans... and now I have to go pick more!
Safflower seeds are a little more expensive but without the blackbirds swarming the feeders they don't have to be filled nearly as often. The Dove, Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Cardinals and a few others will appreciate getting something to eat. The only down side is the seeds that are left on the ground do germinate and if left to grow will have flowers similar to Dandelions but not as pretty. They don't become a puff of seeds either so they don't spread like Dandelions. Usually the Dove will clean up the ground around the feeders and if not, the seedlings are easy to pull up or take a trowel and turn them back into the soil.
