During this morning's walk around our property (a bit like mountaineering, hiking up and down the ravines in the snow and ice) we came upon what I thought was a noteworthy flock of grackles, 30 or 40 birds. Then this afternoon, 4:30-ish, we took a hike around the ridgetop field, and a truly huge flock streamed past, southeast to northwest. I paused and began estimated counting, first reckoning what a hundred birds looked like, then counting them off, at first silently. My non-birder wife Jane said, "Wow! How many birds is that?" So I continued the count audibly, "... 4, 5, 6,.." ticking off the hundreds. When it finally dwindled I had reached a thousand. Everything I saw looked like a grackle, and this is all I heard as well. Fascinating! There is also a largish flock of starlings around, about 300 birds, but I saw none of them in this flock. Other typical winter species all seem to be present. Bob Evans Geologist, etc. Valhalla Acres Fiber Farm Hopewell Township, Muskingum County ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]