When I was a bird-obsessed kid in the west end of Richmond (in the 60s), I used to see this phenomena every afternoon, and called it the "five o'clock traffic". I haven't seen it since, but I would think these would be starlings, too. Do grackles do this, anyone?
During about the same time period, I also built an eagle's nest in a peach tree in the back yard and waited hopefully for some eagles to show up, so that shows what I know!
Kim Harrell
On Monday, August 8, 2005, at 08:59 PM, Al Warfield wrote:
Robin,
The only thing I can think of is starlings. They do that, and look the right size and color.
Al Warfield
----- Original Message -----
From: Robin Ruth
To: va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 11:45 PM
Subject: [va-richmond-general] Fw: Migration question
Would anyone have any ideas on this?
----- Original Message -----
From: Moore
To: audubon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 4:42 PM
Subject: Migration question
If possible, I would appreciate an answer to a question, or direction to where I could find the information.
This evening, August 7, 2005 around 7:00 pm, we observed thousands of birds flying north, then north-east. This lasted for over 15 minutes. The main group (thousands of birds) took about 8 minutes to fly over, then the stragglers took up the remaining time. I do not know the species, I could only tell that they were very dark - I could not see any color. The size was smaller than a crow, but bigger than a wren. The song we heard was only a single "Cha" sound. I realize that this is not much detail, but we have never seen this many birds flying over in August. We live in Halifax, VA, about 30 miles east of Danville, 50 miles north of Durham, and 115 miles south-west of Richmond.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could help me.
Thank you,
Bobbi Moore
Halifax, VA
