7:26 a.m.: About 15 minutes ago a flock of over 1000 blackbirds - redwings, common grackles, and cowbirds, descended upon my back yard and cleaned out 5 black oil sunflower feeders and three suet feeders in a matter of minutes. The only thing they didn't plunder was the thistle seed sock. It was scary! Keep in mind my yard is only 40 feet wide and about 100 feet deep, so it's a very small yard, with one large sugar maple at the back and a few bushes and shrubs planted to attract birds and butterflies. The forsythia bush was weighted down almost to the ground. The maple tree was black with birds, and the utility lines into the house were sagging. I can assure you that in the five years I've lived here, I've never seen anything even remotely like it, and now I know where Alfred Hitchcock got his inspiration. This ought to be an interesting birding day, to say the least. Margaret Bowman Licking Co., OH ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]