Do you remember going to the movie "The Birds" in 1963? I do, and it scared the crap out of me.... I mean... with quotes like this....
Mother in Diner: (to Melanie) Why are they doing this? Why are they doing this? They said when you got here the whole thing started. Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? I think you're the cause of all of this. I think you're evil. EVIL!
Why wouldn't it? (And some of those scenes were so scary!).
Today, early this morning, I felt like I was back in that theater....
Hundreds... no thousands.... of these birds flew over...
Wave after wave after wave of them...
I couldn't see them well enough to be positive, but I'd guess they were red-winged blackbirds... or at least some species of blackbird. Why were they heading north? Where did they come from? Where were they going? I don't know any of those answers...
They flew in long streams.... probably 10 - 15 minutes steady. Gradually the long strands got less dense.... and finally they were gone.
Where? I don't know.
I can tell you that as they flew over and I was trying to get some photos of them I kept my mouth shut.
They did make me wonder what it must have been like when the passenger pigeon was still around. I've read that the sky would darken as they blacked out the sun. Well, the sky didn't blacken, but there were more birds than I've ever seen overhead before.
That's All For Today!
You sure were thinking" when looking up you kept your mouth shut. (grin). I am sure you at least said, "Wow!!".
ReplyDeleteI think they are grackles...red wings tend to swirl when in a large group. AND we all know how many grackles are around!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures. Only thing I have seen like that was fruit bats coming in from the jungle to the city in West Africa over thirty years ago.
ReplyDeleteI bet they are blackbirds of some sort. When I drive I5 north to Portland, there's an area I call Blackbird Alley. I don't know why. Not an alley. But the birds there are often in huge flocks that darken the sky like a giant black moving cloud. They move as one. There are many flocks. They inhabit the fields there, probably trying to take the newly planted grass seed, I don't know. It's an area about two miles long I call bird alley. They're probably Brewers Blackbirds here, mixed with some redwings, possibly some Starlnigs. I recall that movie. I didn't see it in a theater, but later on in life and it was very very scary.
ReplyDeleteI've seen many birds on the move, but not that many.It would conjure memories of The Birds, which I never had the nerve to see.
ReplyDeleteAwesome pictures!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I would have stepped outside to see that...you know...Birdie, Birdie, In the Sky...
ReplyDelete(of course I would have stepped out! And probably tried to count them.)
Yup, I remember that movie and it scared me too. Here we sometimes see swifts in huge groups. It's amazing to see how they turn and maneuver in such a group without running into one another.
ReplyDeleteWe had starlings, thousands of them land in the field in front of our house and on our lawn. Have you ever seen them do their formations in the air? It really is beautiful to see them form all kinds of patterns in the air. But, it's a little scary to look out my living room window and see hundreds of them walking around on my lawn!
ReplyDeleteYou are too funny - I think I'd have kept my mouth shut too! Wonder what kind of bird and where they were going . . .
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty amazing to watch these giant blocks of birds.
ReplyDeleteRod Taylor who starred in "THE BIRDS" passed away today. hmmm
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I went to Bodaga Bay California, back in 1988. It freaked us out! The whole town was just as the movie of the 1960s. We ate lunch in the diner and enjoyed the afternoon without too many birds. We talked about whether we should wear googles or not😳.
ReplyDeleteClouds of birds like this were normal way back in time. Modern agriculture and industrial pollution have mostly eradicated them.
ReplyDelete"The Birds" is a film that scared me more than any other I've seen.
ReplyDelete