Flocking together by the thousands
By Mark Wilson (Contact)
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Drivers gawked in disbelief Friday at a sky thick with blackbirds near Interstate 164 and the Lloyd Expressway east of Evansville.
But local experts said that such giant flocks make perfect sense to the birds.
The birds were so dense in the air over the fields Friday that at times they seemed almost a solid mass.
"This time of year they are flocked up and moving around," said Neal Bogan, a naturalist at Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve. "That could be a spot where two or three flocks came together."
Evan Speck, a member of the Evansville Audubon Society, said he often sees large flocks in the area each winter.
"Late fall or early winter, they gather in flocks and spend the winter in flocks foraging for food. Quite a few species do that," he said. "There is security in numbers."
There might be thousands of birds, but a hawk can get only one, he said.
"When I am out in the Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area (in western Warrick County), I see them. They will go for miles, these flocks of blackbirds going from east to west," said Carol Pettys, another member of the Evansville Audubon Society.
While the birds often flock with their own kind, Speck said, sometimes different species of blackbirds such as grackles, starlings, cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds may merge into one larger flock.
Flocks don't migrate so much as wander, he said.
"They tend to wander South because there is more food farther south. They don't migrate like a lot of warblers and indigo buntings and stuff that go to South America," Speck said. "It's not a strict migration. They just wander."
Those wanderings can take them to a field in a neighboring county, as far south as the Gulf of Mexico or as far north as Wisconsin, Michigan and upstate New York, he said.
"There are a lot of blackbirds out there," he said.
By Mark Wilson (Contact)
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Drivers gawked in disbelief Friday at a sky thick with blackbirds near Interstate 164 and the Lloyd Expressway east of Evansville.
But local experts said that such giant flocks make perfect sense to the birds.
The birds were so dense in the air over the fields Friday that at times they seemed almost a solid mass.
"This time of year they are flocked up and moving around," said Neal Bogan, a naturalist at Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve. "That could be a spot where two or three flocks came together."
Evan Speck, a member of the Evansville Audubon Society, said he often sees large flocks in the area each winter.
"Late fall or early winter, they gather in flocks and spend the winter in flocks foraging for food. Quite a few species do that," he said. "There is security in numbers."
There might be thousands of birds, but a hawk can get only one, he said.
"When I am out in the Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area (in western Warrick County), I see them. They will go for miles, these flocks of blackbirds going from east to west," said Carol Pettys, another member of the Evansville Audubon Society.
While the birds often flock with their own kind, Speck said, sometimes different species of blackbirds such as grackles, starlings, cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds may merge into one larger flock.
Flocks don't migrate so much as wander, he said.
"They tend to wander South because there is more food farther south. They don't migrate like a lot of warblers and indigo buntings and stuff that go to South America," Speck said. "It's not a strict migration. They just wander."
Those wanderings can take them to a field in a neighboring county, as far south as the Gulf of Mexico or as far north as Wisconsin, Michigan and upstate New York, he said.
"There are a lot of blackbirds out there," he said.
Comments