FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] bird stuff

["Kistlers" <kistlers@xxxxxxxxx>]

i guess if you just want to see something new go outside for a while. yesterday 
we saw a distant flock of starlings collect into a very tight ball in the sky 
and turn some amazing aerial manuevers. sibley says this is done for defense 
against raptors. these birds made a huge vertical column, which then morphed 
into a tornado, which then split into two parallel tornado shaped-clouds with a 
clear space of 50 or 100 feet between them. it was amazing and unique in my 
experience. i did not see any hawks nearby but i could have easily missed them.
is everyone seeing as many robins as i am in hart county ? we usually get a big 
pulse in november, but they have hung around this year and increased steadily. 
this evening we walked our dog for about 25 minutes and the entire time a 
loose, wide string of robins was going over. i counted for a while but quit 
when i realized there would be many thousands of birds. 
they were heading south, so i suppose they might have been migrating. however, 
the time of day made me think they were probably heading for a roost.
is anyone else seeing these large numbers ?
steve k
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