Four and Twenty [Gazillion] Blackbirds.
Yesterday, as I went out for a morning walk, I could not help but notice that the neighborhood was full of blackbirds. They were on everyone’s lawn as well as raising hell in the trees. I assumed they were taking a feeding and rest stop on their way south.
One of my neighbors, a Haitian lady who apparently is new to the Northeast, saw me walking and asked, “What is with all these blackbirds? Are we in their migratory path?â€
I answered that I assumed that to be the case.
However, I secretly thought it might be fun to say, “Oh no, this has absolutely nothing to do with migration. All these blackbirds are a sign of some extremely bad juju,†which I suspect would have seriously screwed up the woman’s day.
Sometimes I am just a regular gott-damned prince.
It’s funny, Jim. .We had a flock of grackles (your blackbirds, I’m guessing) in our yard all day. I was watching them carefully and they were eating small acorns from some of the oaks surrounding the house.
I see flocks like this every fall and, once I get past the noise they create, enjoy watching them as they move about like a school of fish–swooping and swirling from place to place. Sometimes they seem to be spooked by the shadows, a hawk, the neighbor’s cat, or a truck applying its breaks. What ever sets them off doesn’t scare them for long and they settle back down to their feeding.
Comment by joated — September 27, 2005 @ 9:45 pm
maybe alfred hitchcock had come back from the dead to film a sequel to “the birds”??
Comment by mr. helpful — September 28, 2005 @ 12:31 am
Joated – Yep, that describes them pefectly. They moved like a school of fish and were chowing down on whatever on lawns. Must be grackles. As you can see, I know about as much about boids as I do computers.
Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — September 28, 2005 @ 3:42 am
Better watch out Jimbo, they will shit on your head, Cat
Comment by Catfish — September 28, 2005 @ 2:04 pm
Jim,
Perhaps a better response would have been, “What birds?”…
Comment by Ed T. — October 2, 2005 @ 1:12 am