A flight of redwings

After too much rain, with more on the way, I needed to remember this, from a summery day, barely two weeks back:

In a field of tall grasses, redwing blackbirds were harvesting seeds. I parked and took photos through the windshield, while Laurie crept up to them, one cautious step at a time. From my vantage point, just about level with the tops of the grass, they reminded me of a boiling pot, with black bubbles constantly popping up and falling back into the stew.

Only a small part of the flock was visible at any one time; the rest were at the roots of the grass. And still, I counted over 150 in this "bubble".

An overflow in the road across the field.

Laurie got one step too close, and the entire boiling rose up ...

swarmed around his head ...

sped across the fields ...

and disappeared into the distant trees.

We weren't sure whether they were starlings or redwings until I blew up the photos. Most are in drab; females, or youngsters with a bit of patterning on the wings. Only a few are adult males; on these, the flash of red is barely visible against the sky.

A Skywatch post.

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