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 ______________________________________________________________________ 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.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]