Evening balcony sit today with the long lens. Day after day, blue upon blue, hotter and hotter. The Little Juniata River and Bald Eagle Creek drop steadily, their rocks now perches and launch pads for Northern Rough-winged Swallows, Common Grackles, and House Sparrows, all finding plenty to eat in the riffles.
Drinking and bathing are popular pastimes in this corner of town. The confluence is the clearest and easiest water hole for a bird to get a drink and clean off, none more expressively than the European Starling:
Somewhat more staid, an American Robin delves for parasites or who knows what:
Grackleville
This isn’t the first year that I’ve noticed this section of river and creek bursting with grackle families. They concentrate here at the intersection of the two streams and in the tangled, messy areas under the interstate. From what I understand, grackles only raise one brood, but as these grow and are able to fly longer distance, a congregation (re)forms and they commute in all directions, but mostly out through the Gap, back and forth, every day, returning for the last time between 8 and 9 PM in flocks of all sizes.
If you recall, we began the breeding year with a few males arriving and displaying on the tops of the tallest local trees, but before that, there had been a grackle flock of hundreds in the area most of the winter. This was eventually joined by a congregation of thousands that swept into the area, bringing cowbirds and blackbirds with it, and eventually, an untold number of grackles began to nest all through Grackleville. Now, it’s alive with screeching all day long and no doubt a great draw for predators, with fledglings teetering about everywhere.
This one shows up in the open and rests, nearly falling asleep, around 7:40 PM. Then it does a vigorous scratch, rouses itself, and continues. I’m not sure what threat a squirrel like this poses to birds the size of grackles, and I’ve not seen it attacked yet, but I would guess it certainly isn’t good news for the Warbling Vireos, Yellow Warblers, Song Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, and a dozen-or-so other other species that nest in the thick silver maples and sycamores and brush patches.
I never knew that squirrels preyed on fledglings ! I thought we only had to be concerned with black rat snakes.