More Hitchock

There's a time of year when the trees are laden with black birds, chatting up a storm. Here is a movie I took of a few trees full at night around the theater district in downtown Houston. This was taken about a month ago and I never got a chance to post it.



I don't know if these are grackles coming back from somewhere from mating time, or if it's a similar looking group of birds migrating through on their way to some other destination.

I have come to love the long tailed grackles that are so common here, which I had never seen in other cities I've lived before.
This time of year they build their nests and have babies, and they sing in a way I don't hear in the fall. It's created a Pavlovian response in me... I hear it and am filled with all kinds of pleasant memories and feelings, as they were the first animal that really caught my attention upon moving here. Previously, living in NYC, I had very little contact with nature, and if I did, it was in the form of grass and water and sunsets on the island's outer edges or from dogs passing on the city streets. The very first baby birds in their nests I've ever seen were when the grackles built them in the trees just below my apartment deck in the high rise I lived in 2 years ago. Their song woke me up at 5 AM every morning in the spring. I'd go bleary eyed into the misty gloaming before sunrise and peer down, often with binoculars, to watch the babies and their progress.... that led to the park, which led to the zoo, which led to the wildlife rehab and look at how much animal interaction I have in my life now!

And it all started with a black bird in a tree....

To read more about black birds click HERE and grackles click HERE and HERE.