I'm sure I've mentioned here that we have a flock of grackles that parades through our yard at various times of the year. Grackles love acorns (so do blue jays and turkeys), and most of our trees are white oaks that produce a bounty of acorns every year. So the grackles will march (and I mean march) from one side of the yard to the other, in formation, with scouts in trees, tossing leaves in the air looking for those acorns. The flow is at least a hundred individuals, so they make quite a racket when they go through. Well, today was something different.
I was attempting to sleep in when it sounded like there were people up on the roof. We've contracted to have some of the trees close to our house taken down, so my first thought was that they had come and Bette just didn't want to wake me up. But when I looked outside there was nobody there. But it still sounds like people walking along the roof. So I get out of bed and go to the patio door where it looks (and sounds) like it's hailing. Only it's hailing acorns.
The grackles were going through, but instead of on the ground they were in the canopy, shaking the branches to get the acorns to drop. Little buggers.
2 comments:
Here just at the edge of Detroit, the gangs are starting to migrate. They're quite colorful, but sometimes are quite brash and noisy. When they scrabble across a roof, it is our custom here to salute them by firing a round up through the roof. They playfully fire back down through the roof at us. There is no harm intended, just the respectful salute of one group to another.
Such a lovely time of year.
Rick, I didn't know gangs were migratory. For some reason I have visions of wildebeest going across the savanna, but with guns and flannel shirts. Sure would make the lions and crocodiles more wary.
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