Today, we had somewhere between 15 to 20 inches of snow and the ground was covered early in the morning. To me, that meant one thing--a horde of Common Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Brown-headed Cowbirds. One of my field guides mentions that this type of horde can include up to 100,000 members. With no bare ground, a horde with thousands of birds found my feeders. I tried to keep them away by clapping my hands from the deck. That did send most of them packing. However, at least 100 birds remained at the feeders and devoured everything. To help the regular birds, I began setting up feeders on the deck for the regulars. By the end of the day, I could wave my arm from inside the door to scare the horde birds away with the regulars ignoring my waving. The regulars are recognizing me as a source of food and not much of a threat. In times of serious need as today, they do not mind my presence.
As the day was ending, the snow was wearing on the birds. Their looks appeared to show disgust with the weather conditions.
Below, a female Northern Cardinal looks disgusted as the snow quickly builds up on her head.
The Common Grackle, a horde bird, looked even more disgusted as it sat in the snow, fluffed up a bit, and let the snow cover its head.
(Originally published on December 19, 2009)
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