Things I Didn’t Know: Grackles

They are fatiguing aren’t they?

I miss the grackles after moving back to Louisiana. I loved their noises lol.

Go eat at any restaurant with outdoor seating in the area

Chances are the sugar and sweetnlow packets are in a mason jar

They target hotels simply to piss off guests

I remember in my late 20s being at an HEB in Houston at night the first time I saw a true infestation of grackles. That parking lot had dozens of trees and each tree had dozens of screaming birds in them. It was crazy loud and eerie.

We talking common or boat tails?

They have learned to pick bugs out of the front grill of cars.

Walmart parking lot has the cars that get washed the least.

Geniuses. Or is that genii?

a group of grackles is called a “plague”.
there’s a metaphor there for us if we look hard enough

I've always wondered why there are so many in the Houston area (Texas). But in Baton Rouge, they are nonexistent. Not that I'm complaining.

It's just strange that they haven't populated more to the east. Seems like the climates are similar enough.

I assume that there are some in west LA but where is the cutoff?

When I was a kid I use to shoot them with my Benjamin air rifle. A lot. Them, black birds, cow birds, and just about anything else that wasn't specifically off limits per my mom. Guess she never considered those "song birds" cause she never fussed at me for shooting them. But oh the trouble I got in if she found out I shot a Cedar Wax Wing or Robins. Or Killdeers. Or Cardinals.

The trick was to not get caught!!