Finally, the grackles are gone. They showed up last March, and for nearly 4 months they have plagued my bird feeders and harassed my songbirds.
I didn’t have swarms of grackles this year, but about a dozen settled in our neighborhood and nested in some tall pines several hundred yards from our yard. They would fly in, snatch some sunflower hearts and sail back to feed their young.
Grackle chicks are highly prized by crows. Crows are smart. They know where the grackles nest and they made regular raids, returning with a beak full of baby grackles. I also fear that the crows may have picked off one of my baby bluebirds or two. I only know – when observing the bluebirds – that when a crow is around, they make a special sound, warning their young to lay low. And they do.
Unfortunately, grackles are highly habitual and generally return to the exact same breeding territories, nesting sites, and winter roosting areas every year. I don’t know exactly where they go in July, but by winter they will be in the Deep Southy. My son, Jimmie, says they hound him in Atlanta in early spring, then make their way north to nest in Virginia.
While some populations are year-round residents, migratory grackles display strong “site fidelity,” meaning they travel back to the same location every spring.
But now, they’re gone and I say good riddance.
