Pardon me today for venturing into an area better handled by a nature show host, but I would like to take this time to mention one of those birds that we love to hate...and maybe kind'a love too: the Boat-Tailed Grackle. Grackles are those big, annoying black birds that hang around by the hundreds, covering courthouse lawns, filling beautiful trees with their annoying black bodies, and filling the air for blocks around with their oh, so irritating cackling, screeching, and chirping that goes on almost non-stop until it is time for owls and other creatures of the night to go on the hunt. But this morning I saw a grackle doing something both entertaining for me, and practical for the bird.
I stopped Friday morning at Home Depot, and as I parked my vehicle, I saw a grackle feeding itself by walking up to the front of a recently parked vehicle, taking aim, and jumping about two feet off the ground to reach freshly killed insects stuck in the grill of said vehicle. I have to concede that as irritating as grackles are, they are also very smart and enterprising birds. These birds are definitely at home in the urban environment, from their numbers, obviously surviving and thriving even though we humans have tried to thin their numbers over the years. And I have actually come to enjoy these birds sometimes, but that was not always the case.
As a youngster I wanted to have a yard full of cardinals, blue jays, bunting, sparrows, mockingbirds, ANYTHING but GRACKLES. Beside the noise and the fact that grackles took up valuable space in my local ecosystem, these birds often kept other birds at bay. I lived at a house that had a fairly wooded backyard, and a big, beautiful magnolia tree in the front yard. And the birds...well, just grackles, you guessed it! So I spent several years nursing a grudge against those awful, noisy blackbirds, but...then I moved to Surfside Beach. That is where I gained a little more respect for these little pests.
I was a permanent resident of Surfside Beach for just over a year, and it was there that the true cleverness of the grackle was revealed to me. My next-door neighbor, a life-long beach bum and a one-time nationally ranked surfer, had actually made friends with a certain grackle who seemed to be the grand-daddy of all the grackles that hung around our house. My surfer friend had, in fact, taught this particular grackle to come knock, I mean, peck on the door, at which time my neighbor would let the bird into his home. The bird had learned a number of vocal and sign commands, and would do certain simple tricks at my neighbor's command. The bird would eat at my friend's table, take food from his hands, and even try to say a couple of words, though these I thought were understandable by other grackles only. Possibly my friend could understand the bird's talk, too, because he "expanded his mind" several decades ago on some substance or another, and kept it from contracting over the years since then with liberal applications of cannabis. The bird would also fly to my friend and land on his hand or his shoulder, depending on the signal. This bird was so much fun to watch that I had to yield my more or less hatred of these birds to some degree, actually gained a bit of respect and liking for these birds.
The pleasure was from watching that old grackle perform his tricks. The respect was not only for same, but also for the way these birds had not only adapted to the beach, but thrived in the that ecosystem, though they were competing with other birds and animals specifically designed for such an environment. The grackles jumped right in with the sea gulls and crabs when it came to catching fresh food or scavenging among the gifts offered by each passing tide. And like the sea gulls, grackles often bore lasting memories of getting too close to something with teeth that was floating just below the sea's surface: they often had only one leg, the other having been bitten off by those creatures unknown. It turns out that grackles are quite resourceful birds, no matter where they are found. Unfortunately where they are found includes all of Texas, even way out in the sand and tumble weeds. No, grackles will never be my favorite bird, but I have come to realize they are rather smart little critters, very resourceful, and sometimes fun to watch. Well, I hope this little view of bird-life has been a little entertaining, and I appreciate your indulgence in letting me do a nature show in today's blog.
I stopped Friday morning at Home Depot, and as I parked my vehicle, I saw a grackle feeding itself by walking up to the front of a recently parked vehicle, taking aim, and jumping about two feet off the ground to reach freshly killed insects stuck in the grill of said vehicle. I have to concede that as irritating as grackles are, they are also very smart and enterprising birds. These birds are definitely at home in the urban environment, from their numbers, obviously surviving and thriving even though we humans have tried to thin their numbers over the years. And I have actually come to enjoy these birds sometimes, but that was not always the case.
As a youngster I wanted to have a yard full of cardinals, blue jays, bunting, sparrows, mockingbirds, ANYTHING but GRACKLES. Beside the noise and the fact that grackles took up valuable space in my local ecosystem, these birds often kept other birds at bay. I lived at a house that had a fairly wooded backyard, and a big, beautiful magnolia tree in the front yard. And the birds...well, just grackles, you guessed it! So I spent several years nursing a grudge against those awful, noisy blackbirds, but...then I moved to Surfside Beach. That is where I gained a little more respect for these little pests.
I was a permanent resident of Surfside Beach for just over a year, and it was there that the true cleverness of the grackle was revealed to me. My next-door neighbor, a life-long beach bum and a one-time nationally ranked surfer, had actually made friends with a certain grackle who seemed to be the grand-daddy of all the grackles that hung around our house. My surfer friend had, in fact, taught this particular grackle to come knock, I mean, peck on the door, at which time my neighbor would let the bird into his home. The bird had learned a number of vocal and sign commands, and would do certain simple tricks at my neighbor's command. The bird would eat at my friend's table, take food from his hands, and even try to say a couple of words, though these I thought were understandable by other grackles only. Possibly my friend could understand the bird's talk, too, because he "expanded his mind" several decades ago on some substance or another, and kept it from contracting over the years since then with liberal applications of cannabis. The bird would also fly to my friend and land on his hand or his shoulder, depending on the signal. This bird was so much fun to watch that I had to yield my more or less hatred of these birds to some degree, actually gained a bit of respect and liking for these birds.
The pleasure was from watching that old grackle perform his tricks. The respect was not only for same, but also for the way these birds had not only adapted to the beach, but thrived in the that ecosystem, though they were competing with other birds and animals specifically designed for such an environment. The grackles jumped right in with the sea gulls and crabs when it came to catching fresh food or scavenging among the gifts offered by each passing tide. And like the sea gulls, grackles often bore lasting memories of getting too close to something with teeth that was floating just below the sea's surface: they often had only one leg, the other having been bitten off by those creatures unknown. It turns out that grackles are quite resourceful birds, no matter where they are found. Unfortunately where they are found includes all of Texas, even way out in the sand and tumble weeds. No, grackles will never be my favorite bird, but I have come to realize they are rather smart little critters, very resourceful, and sometimes fun to watch. Well, I hope this little view of bird-life has been a little entertaining, and I appreciate your indulgence in letting me do a nature show in today's blog.
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