Sunday morning dawned to a heavily frosted landscape. Heavy fog hung on the
pastures. As the sun rose a little, Jane and I went out for the morning
tending of the animals, sheep, goats and horses. I was cleaning up in the
horse barn when Jane called from the yard to announce that a large flack of
starlings had just landed, and that it looked like Hitchcock. I could hear
the birds, and knew that at least many of them were grackles. (I cut Jane
slack on such matters, as she does me on the subjects of sheep, wool and
horses.)

I went out to see the spectacle, and sure enough, there were a few hundred
grackles that had suddenly descended into the emergent black locust trees
and surrounding treetops in the ravine just north of the house. They took
flight after only a couple minutes, and I quickly estimated the flock at
300 - 400 birds.

Yesterday morning another (or perhaps the same) flock flew above the farm,
like a giant backslash across the sky. This time the visibility was better,
and I would say it was close to 800 birds. All that I saw were grackles, as
they grackled from southwest to northeast.

Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Valhalla Acres Fiber Farm
On Flint Ridge
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County

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