"This is a very Hitchcock kind of story. Very Tippi Hedren," said downtown worker Laura Aranda Smith, referring to one of the stars of Alfred Hitchcock's move "The Birds."
Posted on 05/18/2005 9:01:25 AM PDT by Asphalt
HOUSTON (AP) - Like a scene from the horror movie "The Birds," large black grackles are swooping down on downtown Houston and attacking people's heads, hair and backs.
Authorities closed off a sidewalk after the aggressive birds, which can have 2-foot wingspans, flew out of magnolia trees Monday in front of the County Administration Building.
"They were just going crazy," said constable Wilbert Jue, who works at the building. "They were attacking everybody that walked by."
The grackles zeroed in on a lawyer who shooed a bird away before he tripped and injured his face, Jue said. The lawyer was treated for several cuts.
It appears that the birds are protecting their offspring. On Monday a young grackle had fallen out of its nest and adult birds attacked people who got too close, Jue said.
Another bird attacked a deputy county clerk.
"I hit him with a bottle," said Sylvia Velasquez. "The other birds came, and one attacked my blouse and on my back."
Two women came to help her after she fell to the ground, and the birds attacked them as well. The group escaped by running into the building.
"This is a very Hitchcock kind of story. Very Tippi Hedren," said downtown worker Laura Aranda Smith, referring to one of the stars of Alfred Hitchcock's move "The Birds."
Our yard is currently home to cardinals, bluejays, sparrows, mourning doves, scaly quail, one extremely no-nonsense pair of mockingbirds, and receives regular visits from starlings, robins, grackles, and the occasional canyon wren. (The open field across from my wife's office even boasts a substantial population of bobwhite quail. Yum!)
The mockingbirds lord it over all, as you'd expect from our fearless and protective state bird. It's their cheerful singing, their expert flying and their dauntlessness in defending their nests (and, yes, I've been dive-bombed!) that leads me to greatly admire mockingbirds. In many ways, the mockingbird makes a better symbol of American values than does the bald eagle: in defense of offspring and home they take on all comers: cats, dogs, hawks, even people! -- yet they prey only on pests and vermin. We could all learn a lot from these exemplary birds!
My wife and I find grackles to be highly amusing, especially when the boy-type grackles do their "puffy dance". The males are respnsible for most of the mess and the noise, as the girl-type grackles (the dull brown ones) spend most of their time hunting for food. Of course, too much of anything -- even birds -- is not beneficial; when the grackles get to be a nuisance due to overpopulation, the best way to deal with them is simply to hire professional hunters to shotgun their roosting-trees late at night when they are asleep. Still, between cats, cars, owls, and red-tailed hawks, the bird populations here in north central Texas are fairly stable. Pesticide use and habitat loss due to sprawl are far more dangerous to bird populations than any other threats.
Please add me to the Bird Ping list.
Ah yeah on Houston and H-O-T. Spend a summer in Houston and you get a good idea of what Hell is like. Maybe that's why we have so many big churches here.
We occasionally have them here – but the sparrows don’t let them get out of line. Grackles tried taking over a squirrel nest in the eves, the squirrel defended his nest and the sparrows attacked from the air. Half a dozen little birds attacking each of the Big Bads.
The owner of that car made a fatal mistake. He washed his car.
They are probably the thing I like least about Houston when I go there.
You should know that around here, if there are more than one or two FReepers interested in something, there is a ping list. I added you.
There's another kind?
I have mockers, as well, and I just love them. They visit the feeders several times a day to supplement their diet with the fruit I put out for them. I also have a lot of Bluejays, which I just love (although they're costing me a fortune in peanuts), Mourning Doves, Goldfinches; House Finches, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Downy Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice; Cardinals, Brown Thrashers, Nuthatches, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Hummingbirds, Red-wing Blackbirds, Robins and of course, Grackles,Starlings and Sparrows. I have also seen in my yard in lesser numbers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Orioles and a Pileated Woodpecker, and then there's the occasional hawk or crow. I'm sure there are some I've forgotten to mention. I enjoy most of the birds. I dislike the Grackles because they make such a mess, eat their weight in bird food and chase the other birds away.
Added you to the ping list.
"Nasty crow-like birds."
Much to kind.......more like rats with wings?
As he sat at the kitchen table, cleaning his scattergun, a town cop opened the back door and strolled in. "Your honor..." he started to say and stopped when Poppop snapped the gun closed and pointed it at him.
"Go back outside and knock" he said. The poor cop carefully made his way back outside and knocked. "Come in!" said my grandfather, as he cheerfully went back to cleaning. "Uhh, sir, the neighbors called and asked if you could not shoot your shotgun off in the neighborhood?". "Oh. Sure" said Poppop. Ahh, the thirties.
These birds must be smarter than we are.
"more like rats with wings?"
No, that would confuse people with pigeons(sp?).
Grackles are far, far, worse. Very large, very agressive.
They're Starlings. These birds were brought over here by a Shakespearean group, they brought over 100 species of birds that were mentioned in Shakespeare's plays/writings.
Dang Grackles steal the dog food off of my patio.
Thank you, Kent Brockman.
We find the act very amusing also. The male struts around near a female all puffed up with his bill pointed straight up to the sky. "Look at me, babe! I'm bad! I'm the baddest bird in these parts! Yo, mama! You want me!" The throaty gargle is weird, too.
"This is a very Hitchcock kind of story. Very Tippi Hedren," said downtown worker Laura Aranda Smith, referring to one of the stars of Alfred Hitchcock's move "The Birds."
I think one of those Boat Tail Grackles stole a french fry from me when I left it unattended for a moment when I visited Sea World in Orlando as a kid.
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