live oak, grackles

[gurdonark]

The live oak trees keep their leaves all winter long, unlike other varieties of oak tree. Last night during my drive home, I saw a huge flock of grackles perched in a set of small live oak trees. Grackles are very dark birds with long tail feathers. In large groups, they make constant noise, like a crowded party. The sight of shouting grackles crowded into live oak trees is a real winter-time marker. The dark grackles contrast with all the Spring and Summer birds we get, which can be much more colorful. Grackles are a bit more funereal, albeit a kind of jazz improv funeral, with a lot of life and hope amid the darkness.

I like the cyclical nature of seasons. There's something oddly comforting in the sheer "coming and going" of it all. One has a sense of place--jonquil in April, pansies in November, a June filled with giant swallowtail butterflies. Grackles in January are a bit less colorful, but they're fun to see nonetheless. Somehow everything seems to mean something when the seasons come and the seasons go. But I always must be careful not to spend my Summer wishing for colder weather, and my Winter wishing for the heat.

Comments

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

We have a murder of crows nesting within a few miles of us. (ugh!) But I prefer to think of my winter mark as the Junco's that hope around on new fallen snow. They call them *snowbirds* and that seems like it's the only time I see them. How can that be? Where ARE they when there's no snow?

[cathla143.livejournal.com]

I *love* juncos, but we don't have many here. I've seen a few in the yard, but not in the last year or so.

At our last house (in WV), there were always slate-colored juncos hanging around... *sigh* There were lots of other birds, too--most noticeably a family of quail! The babies were SO cute... And we had a nest of chickadees in the grapevine post. The babies were so tiny!

Damn urban areas...

Re:

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

yeah, I guess those exhaust fumes kind of choke the little birdies out. :-(

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Urban areas aren't all bad. Just look what a boon they've been to the grackle and crow population, not to mention the house sparrows!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Here our crows are HUGE, which makes them interesting. I believe we have juncos, but I can't really tell what they look like, so I'll have to go to my bird book and see.

[cathla143.livejournal.com]

Our nickname for grackles is "squeaky doors"... They always seem to congregate in the trees in our front yard. Your analogy of a noisy party is great, though. I'll have to remember that...

Birds and places...

[espvivisection.livejournal.com]

Grackles always mark holiday season in my mind, since they're a rioteous party and so is December if you do it right, and seagulls always remind me of home. In Houston, I live close enough to the Gulf that you can hear gulls cawwing in my neighborhood. Now if I can't hear gulls cawwing, I know I've moved too far inland.

Re: Birds and places...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I love gulls. When we lived in southern California, we saw many, of course, but I've been amused by how many of the inland lakes here in north Texas have gulls from time to time. The gulls must have some inner sense of when it is time to move inland, but I do not know what that sense is at all.

I like about Oregon that there are so many micro-climates in such a small area, so that here is coastal gull country and there is deep woods and there is the gorge and there is the desert and so on. I love the way one crosses over onto the other side of that range which includes Mount Hood and on the eastern side, it looks a lot like parts of Texas, but on the western side, it looks nothing like any part of Texas.

A lot of people from Arkansas move to Oregon, because it has timber, and folks from my part of Arkansas feel most at home in timber.

I remember in general being disappointed with Los Angeles birds, as the array was not as vast, but the hummingbirds in LA were year-round and quite wonderful.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep...

[espvivisection.livejournal.com]

I really need to get to the gorge and up the mountain before all this is over.

You *do* find gulls in the strangest inland places in Texas! They seem to follow the stale bread whereever it goes...

I didn't think California had any room left for birds.

What strikes me as so strange is the difference between Oregon woods and the Big Thicket. The Big Thicket seems so much older and wilder and dirtier than the woods do here. I don't know why, but I associate the Big Thicket with a sort of gnarled tenacity that I don't see in tall, proud, evergreen woods here...or maybe I'm just projecting. :)

Re: The woods are lovely, dark, and deep...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The waterfalls in the gorge are wonderful! Of course, if I lived in Portland, I'd be in that rose garden all Spring and Fall.

The odd but fun thing I liked about your area was the Maryhill Museum. It was the home of the guy for whom they coined the expression "What the Sam Hill?!". It's got a chess set collection, and interesting oddities about an early dance and silent film star and a Rumanian queen. It's in that part of Washington that looks like wheat well mowed.

I've not done the Big Thicket yet, but I really want to see it badly!

Maryhill!!!

[espvivisection.livejournal.com]

I know! I've heard about it! Totally bizarre! I plan to go.

I've bene to a few of the falls, but not the ones in the gorge. I haven't been to the rose garden yet either. That's part of the reason i want to sty this summer actually. I'd like to be able to enjoy being here a bit more than I get to during the year.

Another vote for juncos

[scott-m.livejournal.com]

On an especially cold day, throw some birdseed on
your patio and you might have some juncos pay you
a visit. A cuter bird you'll never see.

Re: Another vote for juncos

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I'm going to give it a try, not to mention pulling out my bird book to get more junco savvy.