Not Bad News for Us

The baddest dude on the block is back.  Last year, especially in summer, we saw quite a bit of a small family group of Quiscalus quiscula, the dreaded Common Grackle.  Many bird feeders dread this bunch (and for the southeast USA, they're year-rounders) especially given their tendency to form huge mobs and, locust-like, empty all feeders in their path.

To be sure, grackles can be very bad news.  At Pea Island National Wild Life Refuge I observed that Common Grackles drove off other birds at the visitor center feeding station.  And I have seen amazing flocks of them here in Cary.  But for whatever reasons, the ones that found us have been amazingly well behaved and I am happy to indulge their interest in suet.  I am curious how they'll behave in 2012, but that is a story for later.