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 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]