That’s a lot of flickers! Good reason why one should be out & about during migration, expecting to see the unexpected!! Do you suppose that they really are in migration and have stopped for r&r while the weather system blows over? It would explain going here & there, since maybe they don’t know the area and need to search for good places for feeding and roosting @ night.

Yesterday down along Acorn Park Drive where we saw the huge flocks of starlings and robins the past 2 years in December, I saw about 200 grackles (wild guesstimate) all crowded in the trees of the parking lot along the drive. What a sight, and sound – they were cackling and squeaking just like they do, but with lots of cacophany due to their numbers! There were just a very few starlings, robins, and blue jays mixed in with them. The usual Great blue heron, that lazily wings overhead when you are down there near sunset, did not appear while I was there. But there were 45 Canada geese feeding on the freshly sculpted lawns.

John Sharp
Arlington, MA