Grackful

[talktooloose]

I am grateful for the abundance of grackles this year. There is an especially vocal population on Clinton Street north of Barton (spizzy take note) that I walk past on the way to the subway.

Grackles are lovely and audacious and their song sounds like a squeaky screen door.

Grackles were hit hard by West Nile Virus a few years ago and I am glad to see them returning. The blue jay numbers are still not what they were, from my informal ear and eye poll.

Comments

[painglass.livejournal.com]

I hope the birds are able to return in full force to delight your ears and eyes! :)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

And for other biological reasons, too.

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

:-)

It's true. I'm sad at the lack of jays, too. Give it a bit more time. They'll be back. On the otherhand, there have been some cute (and daring!) sparrows around campus lately. On my walk home today there was one looking for seed on the ground by the sidewalk and he was totally uncaring of the fact that I was standing right next to him staring in amazement that the bird hadn't flown away when I got within 10 feet. And I'm a cat person!

I do like birds too, though. I actually was taking a walk through Waterloo Park on Friday with a friend, and we were in one of the wooded areas. There was a HUGE hawk just chilling out on the ground near this clearing in the woods. I've never seen a bird that large in the wild before, excepting some flamingos down South.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Are you, like, a cat person like in the movie Cat People? Because that would be cool.

Ooh, nice meeting with the hawk. Those moments are so rare and wonderful.

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the hawk was big enough that I'm pretty sure it was feeding on ducks, cats, dogs etc. in addition to mice.

Haven't seen the movie, so... uh... *shrug*

I'm a cat person in that cats usually seem very at ease around me, even those who don't normally approach strange people. I've had friends whose cats hide at the sound of anyone new jump into my lap the moment I sit down. I dunno.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Klondike was also totally relaxed around you, which he isn't with everyone.