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Tuesday - August 7, 2007

Rainbow at the Mall, Part 3

Look! Even more birds. There were thousands of them. Thousands and thousands and thousands.

I can't begin to guess how many times I've driven by the mall in the summer at about dusk over the last few years and seen all the thousands and thousands of birds that hang out there round about sunset. I always thought they were grackles. I never stopped and actually looked, though. Since I was there trying to take photos of the rainbow, I saw the birds close-up. And, it was clear that the vast majority of them were not, in fact, grackles. It looks like there's one grackle in this photo. He (she?) is the one that's so much bigger than the others...near the right edge.

The situation was rather creepy. It felt very much like Hitchcock's The Birds and it made me feel kinda nervous. As I was snapping photos, a gentleman and his daughter walked up to talk to me about the birds. The little girl was about 7 or 8 and was walking around with an umbrella to avoid the obvious...what with all those birds flying around. Not a bad idea. He told me the birds were purple martins. And, it looks to be true. Apparently, the birds are staging as they get ready for their trek to Brazil for the winter. Cool.

And, when I turned around and looked across Airport Blvd., I could see even more of those birds flying toward the mall for the night.

More purple martin photos on the way.

Posted by Joanna at 8:59 PM

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