[va-richmond-general] Red-wing Blackbirds
- From: "Jim Blowers" <jimvb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 07:52:03 -0500
We have a huge collection of black birds in our neighborhood who
occasionally descend on our feeder, about 20-40 at a time. They fight over
the four slots to the feeder, flapping their wings as they do so. They fight
over the suet, and they mill about all over the place on the ground.
They are mostly grackles, which I feel are good birds. (If they were
starlings, I would scare them off.) But in those grackles, every once in a
while I would see some starlings or cowbirds. Yesterday I saw an even more
impressive sight. Red-wing blackbirds. I saw their epaulets, which were
small (what Peterson calls "hidden") and yellow, but I did see some red. I
saw red-wing blackbirds when I was a child, and I feel that the baseball
team in the place where I came from, Rochester, New York, was named after
them (The Rochester Red Wings). But they have been rare here. Until now I
only saw them in scattered places, such as Point of Rocks Park. If I tap on
the window, they get scared and all fly off. Their concept of flying off is
interesting. They just hop to the nearest tree, and the naked trees then
sport black birds all over the place like Christmas tree ornaments. About a
minute later, they all fly to the feeder again.
I think it is interesting that birds of different species, or even families,
will flock together. It represents a considerable extension of the concept
of racial harmony, which extends only to one species (our own).
Jim Blowers
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