RE: [cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds

[Deb Grantham]

Flocks of blackbirds here on Sheffield Road yesterday and today. Some at least 
are red-winged blackbirds.

Deb


From: bounce-128054100-83565...@list.cornell.edu 
 On Behalf Of Annette Nadeau
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2024 4:08 PM
To: CAYUGABIRDS-L 
Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds

Several Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds under my feeders today here in 
Trumansburg.

Annette
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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds

[Donna Lee Scott]

It’s like Hitchcock‘s “the birds” movie over here this morning!
100s of Redwinged-BBs & C. Grackles, with a few Brown-headed Cowbirds, vying 
for bird seed.

Donna Scott
Lansing
Sent from my iPhone

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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds!

[Mo Barger Rooster Hill Farm]

Here too! OOB, hills of Candor. Earliest I've ever recorded.

On Fri, Feb 25, 2022, 9:30 AM Maureen Cowen  wrote:

> They were visiting our feeders too.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Feb 25, 2022, at 8:55 AM, Donna Lee Scott  wrote:
>
>  I have a huge flock of red wing blackbirds with several grackles mixed
> in eating under and on all my feeders!
> I estimate about 250 Red Wings &
> at least 10 grackles.
> They keep spooking and flying up to the trees and then back down, so hard
> to count.
>
> I have thrown out quarts of cracked corn and sunflower seed on the ground
> for them.
>
> Donna Scott
> Lansing
> Sent from my iPhone
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds!

[Maureen Cowen]

They were visiting our feeders too.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 25, 2022, at 8:55 AM, Donna Lee Scott  wrote:

 I have a huge flock of red wing blackbirds with several grackles mixed in 
eating under and on all my feeders!
I estimate about 250 Red Wings &
at least 10 grackles.
They keep spooking and flying up to the trees and then back down, so hard to 
count.

I have thrown out quarts of cracked corn and sunflower seed on the ground for 
them.

Donna Scott
Lansing
Sent from my iPhone
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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds!

[Donna Lee Scott]

I have a huge flock of red wing blackbirds with several grackles mixed in 
eating under and on all my feeders!
I estimate about 250 Red Wings &
at least 10 grackles.
They keep spooking and flying up to the trees and then back down, so hard to 
count.

I have thrown out quarts of cracked corn and sunflower seed on the ground for 
them.

Donna Scott
Lansing
Sent from my iPhone

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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds!

[bob mcguire]

I have a voracious flock of some 45 Grackles and Red-wings at/under one of the 
feeders this morning. Glad I filled it last night!

Bob McGuire
Snyder Hill area
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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds, all kinds

[Barbara Bauer Sadovnic]

We just had a mixed flock of over a hundred blackbirds, including red-winged 
blackbirds, grackles, cowbirds, and starlings.  There were a few female 
cowbirds, and possibly some female red-winged, although probably more likely 
they were juvenile males.  Couldn’t get a good look!

Barbara, in Enfield
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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds

[Carol Keeler]

The blackbirds having flown north to Auburn.  I had a flock of about 100 birds. 
 I could ID at one Common Grackle and Red Wing.  They were at the back edge of 
my property, about 300’ away.  20 Red Wings just came in to the feeders. 

Sent from my iPad

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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds

[Peter]

Here at the feeder in Phelps, NY I am being "treated" to mixed flocks of 
starlings, crackles, cowbirds and redwings devouring the seed.


I wish it WERE March!!

Bah, humbug!!!  (smile)

Pete "Ebenezer" Saracino


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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds

[Carol Keeler]

I filled my feeders yesterday and broadcast lots of seed today.  Wow did I get 
a lot of takers!  I had a huge flock of blackbirds , Red Wings both male and 
female, Grackles, Cowbirds, and Starlings.   I did get my regulars too.  There 
were Cardinals, Blue Jays, Gold and House Finches, Titmice, Chickadees, Juncos, 
Tree Sparrows, Song Sparrows as well as House Sparrows.  It was hard for the 
little ones to get to the food due to the Blackbirds.  I had a good number of 
Robins which looked very pathetic in the driving snow storm.  I saw them eating 
crab apples and scavenging along the driveway. I threw  out some blueberries on 
the driveway.  It took forever for the Robins to find them.  No fall out of 
Pipits here, unfortunately.  My only new birds were the female Red Wings.  The 
Cooper's Hawk made a fly- by and landed briefly in the cherry tree.  It was a 
very birdy day.  I do wish the Blackbirds hadn't stayed around all day.

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Re: [cayugabirds-l] blackbirds

[Mo Barger Rooster Hill Farm]

Huge flocks today in the hills of Candor too :-)!
On Mar 1, 2016 9:49 AM, "Bill Mcaneny"  wrote:

> A little after 9am today, Spring arrived. A single male REDWINGED
> BLACKBIRD.  He was followed closely by a second and a few minutes later by
> 13 GRACKLES and a third Redwing.  The great event was witnessed with
> trepidation by a dozen Bluejays and 20 Goldfinches.  Of course, snow is in
> the forecast so there are a lot of birds flying around the yard. Smile.
>
> Bill McAneny, T’Burg
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[cayugabirds-l] blackbirds

[Bill Mcaneny]

A little after 9am today, Spring arrived. A single male REDWINGED BLACKBIRD.
He was followed closely by a second and a few minutes later by 13 GRACKLES
and a third Redwing.  The great event was witnessed with trepidation by a
dozen Bluejays and 20 Goldfinches.  Of course, snow is in the forecast so
there are a lot of birds flying around the yard. Smile.

Bill McAneny, T'Burg


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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds and cowbirds

[M & K Mannella]

Yesterday we had 4 red-winged blackbirds under the feeders and today we have 3 
brown-headed cowbirds. 

Michele
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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds, redpolls, geese

[Laura Stenzler]

Many, many big flocks of blackbirds flying over East Ithaca today. A few flocks 
of geese as well, both Canada and Snowgeese. In addition we still have a large 
flock of redpolls with some siskins mixed in.
Hunt Hill Rd., East of Ithaca.

Laura

Laura Stenzler
l...@cornell.edu
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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds

[Carol Keeler]

Had another even larger flock of blackbirds.  There were mostly Grackles but I 
found four Red-Wing Blackbirds mixed in. FOS for me.  I also heard a Robin 
singing.  Spring must be coming!

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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds, siskins

[Bill Mcaneny]

About an hour ago (10 to 10:30) a mixed flock of blackbirds assaulted our
feeders. Total of about 20 birds about equally divided among Redwings,
Common Grackles, and Cowbirds. All appeared to be males. That was followed
closely by 2 Pine Siskins on the niger tube, the first here all winter.
Almost all the usual birds were here, in contrast to yesterday which was
extremely quiet.

Bill McAneny, TBurg


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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds at Sapsucker woods

[Laura Stenzler]

There is a huge flock of mostly Grackles, plus Red winged Blabkbirds and a few 
Rusty BBs at Sapsucker woods right now. 8 am. 
 Currently just south of the main entrance to the Lab of O. Quite impressive !

Laura

Laura Stenzler
l...@cornell.edu

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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds along Hanshaw Rd

[Laura Stenzler]

5:10 pm, a large flock of blackbirds in the corn along Hanshaw Rd just west of 
Sapsucker Woods Rd. I'm watching for yellow headed blackbird. I think it's 
mostly grackles and some rusty blackbirds.  
Laura

Laura Stenzler
l...@cornell.edu
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds along Hanshaw Rd

[nutter . dave]

A week ago Sunday, that is 23 September, I was at the Freese Road Community Gardens early in the morning and a flock of Icterids I estimated at 1500 birds commuted overhead from the valley of Fall Creek north-northwest and landed just across from the bee lab in the field on Freese Road. They stayed there awhile, presumably eating corn, then commuted back overhead the way they came. This is very close to where Laura's large flock was today. Whenever I looked carefully at the birds in my flock I only found Common Grackles, but because they were molting their tails, there was a lot of variety. Some had short tails like European Starlings; some had medium length tails like Red-winged or Rusty Blackbirds but with bigger head, neck,  bill and a blue hood; some had just the normal long central tail feathers and the rest short, something like a mot-mot. I think Bob McGuire saw this same flock the next day. I wonder if this is the same flock. I also saw a small party of Red-winged Blackbirds which seemed not to be with that big flock. Anyway, there are interesting-looking birds around this time of year.--Dave NutterOn Oct 02, 2012, at 05:12 PM, Laura Stenzler l...@cornell.edu wrote: 5:10 pm, a large flock of blackbirds in the corn along Hanshaw Rd just west of Sapsucker Woods Rd. I'm watching for yellow headed blackbird. I think it's mostly grackles and some rusty blackbirds.  Laura  Laura Stenzler l...@cornell.edu --  Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm  ARCHIVES: 1) cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html'http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html  Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/  -- 
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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds Caspian Terns - Montezuma

[William Roberts]

At about 7:15 p.m. this evening there were huge flocks of blackbirds ( RwBs, C. 
Grackles, E. Starlings) converging on MNWR near the Visitor Center. My guess is 
that there were several hundred thousand birds swirling, swarming and streaking 
over and through the wetlands and trees for approximately forty-five minutes 
before all movement concluded as the birds descended into the rushes and nearby 
trees as the sun was setting. I felt privileged and very excited to be 
witnessing a magical spectacle. Occasionally a flock would dive low over my 
position making it possible to hear and feel the sound of the flock as it 
swooshed in an undulating or serpentine manner. Regrettably I did not have a 
video camera to record this amazing event.
In addition there were 16 Caspian Terns that flew in a very loose flock over 
the Visitor Center parking lot on a southern tack.
Bill RobertsAurora
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[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds and Blackbirds and blackbirds and others this past week at MNWR

[Meena Haribal]

Last week, I visited MNWR in search of blackbird black clouds. On Thursday 
morning I was there on the auto drive at civil light and spent time till about 
15 minutes after sunrise as I had to head back to work.  I had spectacular 
views of blackbirds rising from the marsh and heading out to feed in the 
morning.



So on Saturday, I was not quite sure if there would be yet black birds or not, 
deiced to give another try. So again I arrived at MNWR at the break of civil 
light and watched the mind boggling view.



So here I have uploaded a small clip on you tube with the following description.



On a foggy morning just before sunrise on March 17 2012, millions of 
blackbirds, mixture of Red-winged Blackbirds and Grackles were starting to form 
groups to take off of foraging. Sometimes, they formed waves like tornado 
clouds, at other time they were more like PCR plots or DA plots with several 
clusters of clouds. Some clouds overlapped, while others kept to themselves. It 
was difficult to predict from where they will rise. But between civil light, at 
least that is when I arrived and by sunrise most of the birds had left the 
marsh and most returned only just about fifteen minutes before sunset. Then 
marsh seemed empty except for a few local resident blackbirds by now that have 
taken up residence.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wir8JFXWkvk



After that view, I felt greedy and wanted to get the blackbirds returning to 
marsh in the evening with sunset background. So deiced to spend rest of the day 
at MNWR as I did not want to come back to Ithaca and go back again. I visited 
various other locations in the northern Montezuma nothing much so very 
spectacular.

At Carncross road, I heard two SANDHILL CRANES, several TREE SWALLOWS , SONG 
SPARROWS and five BLUE BIRDS were claiming territories. I listened to each and 
every song sparrow's songs and iedto distinguish them by song to kill time.



At Marten's tract some one seemed to be camping in car, so I did not feel 
comfortable spending time there alone. But I did watch two Swallows on two nest 
boxes and chattering excitedly and there was no sign of bluebirds anywhere near 
by.



Other locations I came up empty.



Then I returned to Tschache and scanned all the ducks and scanned widgeons for 
a Eurasian and did not find it. An hour later Nutter and party arrived and 
Nutter finds EURASIAN WIDGEON in the pool far end. When I had scanned there 
were not so many Widgeons in that location :-(



As I had not planned on spending full day at MNWR, I ran out of water and it 
was hot. So I headed to nice and easy gas station and returned with one gallon 
of water jug and there still another six to seven hours to kill before the 
blackbirds returned. Luckily I had two books in my car, one by Dennis Paulson 
on Eastern Odonates and then Barbara Kingsolver's Homeland.  So I sat in the 
shade of the corral near visitor center and listened to and watched birds while 
I read the books.



There were three song sparrows around the corral and listened to their song, 
now I feel confident that I may be able to recognize them if I heard them 
anywhere as they sang so many times. I also watched what Red-winged Blackbird 
males did when they were not claiming their property.  They were pulling 
insects (I think) out of cattail cotton. While at the corral several SNOW GEESE 
flocks flew overhead. In one small group there was a very small goose, which I 
believe was a ROSS's GOOSE.  In past few days I had scanned many snow geese 
flocks with thousands of birds and did not find a Ross's goose, but here in a 
small group there is one!



 I also saw a lone DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT flying north. Still I had an hour 
and half to kill before the birds came back. Breeze was lovely and fresh air, 
so it was just relaxing to sit and enjoy the surroundings.



One hour before sunset, I drove on the auto drive and stationed near LaRue's 
Lagoon. As sun was getting low, shoveler's were getting their quota of food, 
all of a sudden a group of TREE SWALLOWS started skimming over water and 
catching insects. Then they all assembled on a tree, there were at least some 
300+. I was hoping to keep an eye to see if they roosted on the tree or on the 
marsh. But by then slowly blackbirds started trickling in and I totally forgot 
about swallows. Most of the early birds did not head off to marsh, but  stopped 
on tallest trees. They came down small groups, they landed on the banks of La 
Rue lagoon and had bath, but they were not clearly visible as there was tall 
grass or mud around them.  Soon thousands started pouring in.  They would land 
at one place and then the whole flock would rise and swirl around and land 
elsewhere. Again move from there and land elsewhere. This went on! After sunset 
from west incessant river of black birds poured in to the marsh. They went on 
and on till the Venus and Mars became visible and rest became darker. I decided 
it was time to call it a night!

[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds

[Laura Stenzler]

This evening (2/23)  two flocks of several hundred Red-winged Blackbirds flew 
over our house east of Ithaca (5:40pm). Common Grackles were mixed in with the 
RWBBs. Last year we first saw them on March 10!
Laura

Laura Stenzler
l...@cornell.edu
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