Last evening, while enjoying my dinner near the camp fire, I kept hearing
Common Grackles calling overhead. Finally I looked up and saw a huge
"ribbon" of grackles streaming overhead. They were coming over the trees
and fields to the north, with all of the birds quickly flying over me and
heading south. Mostly they flew directly overhead, but later they undulated
between east and west of my observation point. At times the stream split
into two, with about half flowing both east and west of my property. Most
of the time the "ribbon" was about 10-20 birds wide. At all times they
maintained their steady flight southward and were very loud. This started
around 6 PM and lasted about ten minutes or so (I lost track of time). In
all, I counted around 13,000 (thirteen thousand) grackles, all Common
Grackles as far as I could tell, but there were probably many more since
many flew over before I realized what was happening. About 100 Red-winged
Blackbirds straggled along in groups of 6-20 after the huge flock ended. An
incredible experience indeed - I've never seen a flock that large here. :)

Judy

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