Thursday, December 11, 2008

Birds on a wire

Usually pigeons hang out in this spot, but the other day a flock of blackbirds (grackles? starlings?) took over for the afternoon. The snowstorm was about to begin, and these birds were talking their heads off.
They line themselves up pretty precisely. I wonder if there's a particular pecking order they follow every time.

7 comments:

  1. Cool. Puts me in mind of one of my favorite Pixar short films "For the Birds".. See it here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWXX6vCioqU

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  2. Ack! I was thinking of the Hitchcock film The Birds. :)

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  3. I don't know about these birds, but last year we were in the Arctic and saw a cliff with (they said) 600,000 bird nests on it, and that every single one of those birds knew where its nest was (and the baby birds knew just where to find mama bird).

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  4. They have tried, in their way, to be free.
    Sorry, you got me on a Leonard Cohen vibe.
    I love it when they flock like that, so quiet, so ominous.

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  5. Jenny, that's perfect! I love it.

    Kasey, they could seem ominous ...

    Kathi, isn't that amazing? Though they probably think humans all look alike, too.

    Natashya, sing it!

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  6. How pretty! Have you seen the PBS ad where the musician has writer's block until he looks out the window and sees blackbirds on wires like notes on a music staff and he plays what he sees? It doesn't look like your birds would inspire music since they're all on the same note.

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  7. Sounds cute, Betts. I haven't seen that ad.

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