Two Weeks Early!

Common grackle (photo by Steve Gosser)
Common grackle (photo by Steve Gosser)

23 February 2017

On Throw Back Thursday:

Last year I reported that common grackles usually return to my city neighborhood on March 5.This year they’re ahead of schedule.  They arrived here in Pittsburgh on Tuesday February 21 and even earlier at Moraine State Park, 45 miles further north, on Sunday, February 19.

The grackles are two weeks early!

I noticed them when I heard them “skrink.”

Click on last year’s article below to watch the grackles puff and squeak on video.

Grackle Day

p.s. Have you seen other “early birds” this week?

(photo by Steve Gosser)

9 thoughts on “Two Weeks Early!

  1. I have had the grackles around for a few days also. More surprising to me was the fact that even though I had had a red winged blackbird or two around most of the winter, over the weekend there were quite a few of them, both male and female.

  2. Well woodcocks have been displaying full tilt. Usually I would consider February their warm-up month and March their main gig. I have a theory that once they’ve hit a certain number of displays for any given area/population, they close up shop. I’ll be interested to see if they display into March at full tilt or start to subside their practice. I was thinking as I rode my bike to work this morning that “February is the new March” and though I welcome mild temperatures to some degree I also find it somewhat unsettling.

  3. I have notice Red Winged Blackbirds at both my feeders in Gilpin Township and My Fathers feeders in Allegheny Township. Also the Eastern Bluebirds have been visiting my bird boxes.

  4. Yep, Red Winged black bird I saw last Saturday, Flocks of gulls in “V'” formation heading north along the Ohio river Monday, newly arrived Kill Deer pair Tuesday and heard a Bluebird singing today.

  5. The grackles arrived at my bird feeder earlier this week (I’m in Pittsburgh city borders).

    I took a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon and noticed that a lot of bushes have buds on them.

  6. The blackbird flocks have been here for a week now in central Maryland. Hundreds of them descend upon my backyard and proceed to wipe out the seed. I believe they love the millet.

    They are Grackles, Starlings, Cowbirds and Red Wing Blackbirds. One small noise will startle them and *whoosh* they all fly at once up into the trees. The whoosh sound is tremendous. A few seconds later and they are all back on the ground again. Rinse and repeat. Then the bedtime bell rings for them and they all head off to roost for the night. Then the usual locals come back out to look fort the scraps.

    The flocks seem to be arriving earlier and earlier the past 5 years. Hmmmmm, I wonder why that is…

  7. Yes, my grackles turned up on Monday….Heard lots of splashing and found them taking turns bathing in my spring!

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