Red-winged Blackbirds
On a chilly, sunny morning, a Black Vulture sailed across a deep blue sky, quilted with high white clouds. The white patches in the wings of the vulture flashed, and its silent flight reflected the quiet of the landscape all around. Even though it was such a beautiful day, few birds were active here, at least when I was out. A Carolina Wren was singing. Crows quietly walked across yards. A few American Robins foraged in other yards, here and there. The dry chatter of a Chickadee or two, a Titmouse, a Red-bellied Woodpecker came from the woods. An Eastern Phoebe hovered above a tangle of withered vines around a mailbox. Not even Bluebirds or Chipping Sparrows seemed to be out and about.
Then at the crest of a hill, I began to hear the conk-a-ree calls of Red-winged Blackbirds and rusty creaking calls of Common Grackles, and saw a Blackbird flock settled mostly in a patch of scrappy oaks and pines not far in the distance, but too far to see very well, especially against a very bright sky. It was not a large flock – maybe a hundred or two, as well as I could tell, a very rough guess – but it’s the most blackbirds I’ve seen coming into the neighborhood so far this season.