Anyone else have grackles in your State?

[INTELBYTES]

Down here in Austin, we have these birds, the noisiest bunch of birds you've ever heard that fly around in massive flocks. These things are in the thousands just hanging out in one or two trees in the busiest parts of the city. They are deafening if you don't have your windows rolled up.


(P.S. this isn't related to my bird crap question I posted earlier):silly:

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. We have them in Chicago in warm weather.

I guess they summer up here.

[Jonte_1979]

2. Are grackles anything like fraggles?

Either way, the answer is no.

[oldcoot]

3. We have grackles in Las Vegas, NV

We have great-tailed grackles in Las Vegas and they are very noisy. Apparently, they are not a native species to southern Nevada. Long-time Las Vegas residents have told me that they do not remember seeing grackles until the 1970s.

[amazona]

7. they are marching west

In 2001 I was with a bird tour that spotted some of the first if not the first Great-Tailed Grackles in an area of the Snake River in Idaho.

[oldcoot]

9. Grackles in Idaho

I have relatives who live near Pocatello. They have seen Common Grackles at their feeder but they have not seen any Great-tailed Grackles yet. However, I think that I saw a Great-tailed Grackle at Market Lake Wildlife Refuge several years ago.

[amazona]

4. of course we have Grackles

Boat-Tailed and Common Grackles around here. Sometimes a gang of Common Grackles comes to my suet feeder. They are attractive birds with a flash of iridescent color when the sun catches them right.

[Mr.Green93]

5. plenty in ky.

n/t

[Skittles]

6. Yeah

they are nasty little f***s.

[INTELBYTES]

8. Thanks skittles!

Thats what I think of em too!

[Skittles]

18. I tried to kick a grackle's ass one time

but he was too small and he kept flying away.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. Yes, I volunteer at a

wildlife rehabilitation sanctuary, and every year we get large numbers of orphaned baby grackles that we hand raise. They're cute and I love them but they are very very noisy.:)

[Fovea]

11. It seems like every spring

one of them sneaks into our Kansas City house.
Beautiful birds, they look drab until the light hits them right,
then they are suddenly iridescent teal and a bit of silver.

[shance]

12. We have huge, noisy crows. I just wanna buy a shot gun and shoot em.

They start warming up the larynx's around 5 am in the morning and I think someone has paid them to serenade me at my bedroom window.

I hate those birds, theyre overpopulating and killing off other bird types and they just are cocky little so and sos. If I didnt live in the city Id have crow shoots every weekend.

[Cocoa]

13. in Southern Wisconsin

my old state.

Big flocks of grackles in the Prairies of southern Wisconsin.

[HereSince1628]

14. our grackles aren't the boat tailed grackles of texas

As you might expect being from Texas they are twice the size of ours.
When I was in grad school at College Station, they had an active program to try to repell them...it was like going to the University of Bodago Bay...

[GOPisEvil]

15. Argh! Grackles SUCK!!!

They are mean, nasty birds that strong-arm the other birds when it comes to food.

Oh, for the Austin crowd, ever go to Highland Mall around dusk? IT's like a scene from The Birds. Creepy. Don't park under the trees there unless you like bird crap on your paint.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

16. We have crows from hell

even here in the city. Loud bastards go nuts in the morning.

[BiggJawn]

17. Got Boat-Tailed Grackles in Indiana

I have seen the Great-Tailed ones in Las Vegas.

I don't think they're as big a nuisance here as Starlings. I see maybe 10 Grackles a year compared to HUNDREDS of Starlings.

[guitar man]

19. Thousands of them

It seems like this flock has to come by the TV station where I work about once a week and land right on the satellite dish during network programming.ARRGH!! Interrupts the signal and I have to go chase them off,so they make sure to shit all over my car on the way out.

I am going to get some rubber snakes to put on the dishes and see if that will keep them off. If not,I am taking the shotgun to work with me.

[cookre]

20. Central NC -

I rather enjoy them. My house is next to a 250 year old white oak that is home to them when they're here.

When they get up in the morning, they commence to chattering quietly, talking about the day ahead, then they all leave en masse to head off to work.

They all come back home several hours before sunset, talk about what they did that day, read the paper, then head off to bed.

They are outstanding parents. Until I capped the chimneys, some would always nest there, and each year several young'ns would fall out of their nest down to the fireplace. Momma would always come down after them and raise a terrible ruckus to get our attention. As soon as I unblocked the fireplace, momma would fly around the room, telling me to get her kidlets outside. I'd carry each one outside and into a box up on a flat roof. When the last one was outside, momma settled down and followed me out so I could show her where they were. She and poppa then did double duty between the main nest and the box.

I can always tell the morning when two days of flight training begins and take off work to watch. Poppa flies patrol overhead as momma takes the kids out one at a time for lessons. She squawks at them as if to tell them what they're going to, glides in a straight line from the nest to a fence, the gives a twitter. One of them glides down to her, then she takes off back to the nest and the kid follows. This continues until each one has done the lesson and is followed by an extra hearty feeding. The lessons become increasingly difficult, and after two days, momma, poppa, and the kids are worn out.

They spend a few days learning where and how to catch bugs, then gradually leave to go make their own way in the world. The parents then go off for a two week vacation before starting their next clutch of the season.

Turn, turn, turn.