Indigenous People’s Common Grackles

Klarisse and Christopher decided to run to the Turkey Mountain trailhead. We got there before them, waited briefly for a spot to open up and then walked down the road to intercept their jog from the bike path. South of the road that leads to the trailhead, beyond a crumbled rock wall and twisted wire fence, grasses and young trees slowly reclaimed the expanses of an unmaintained golf course. As we neared the halfway point from the trailhead to the intersection with Saw Mill River Road, which runs parallel to the bike path, sporadic squeals and chuckles reacted to us from the beyond the embankment. When I let my eyes focus into the stand of trees south of the road I could see they were filled with Common Grackles. I climbed up the embankment to take a video of the colony of Grackles roosting in the field. I few of them flushed from my noisy approach to the twisted fence. Then many of them followed and when a large wave of them lifted off the trees and field a noise like the revving of a large machine followed them. The way spread and thickened, staying low, slicing through the threes where Saw Mill River Road and the road to the mountain intersected. The Grackles began settling in the trees to the north with an occasional wave pealing off the field and streaming over the trees rapidly losing their autumn leaves. Judy and Scott said the collection of birds was the largest they had ever seen. My uncle Eldon witnessed the massive movement of Grackles also. We compared the experience to scenes from the movie The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. A large pickup truck came up the road as a wave of Grackles created an black curtain over the bottom of the hill to the trailhead. When the man packed at the bottom of the road and exited his car, he said that was the most birds he had ever seen in one place. We agreed with him. Christopher and Klarisse then came jogging across Saw Mill River Road and then up the hill. I took a video of the Grackles streaming by overhead.  The sound of the flock was an continuous squeaking. We turned back up the hill, a few minutes behind Chris and Klarisse who were glistened with sweat. They jogged through the flock but never broke stride. We hiked at a conservative pace the two mile loop and only saw two Grackles on our was back down the trail.