Grackles
I thought they were ugly birds. Nuisances. Not worth my time. I tend to chase them away from our backyard bird feeder because they scare away the other birds that I felt were more worthy of my attention. I convinced myself that they didn't belong in my backyard. And then I met one on a nature trail that made me give grackles a second look. It was a bright morning when I drove out to the Sarsaparilla Trail, off Old Richmond Road. I was looking for my Merlin bird of the day, a yellow-bellied sapsucker, and the app told me that they had been spotted on this end of town. The bird app picked up its song and I saw one fly across the path, but I didn't have my camera at the ready. But I could at least add the sapsucker to my Life List, which to date stands at 215 species. The sapsucker had also been spotted along the Jack Pine Trail, also nearby, so when I was done taking pictures at the Sarsaparilla Trail, I changed locations. I knew there were some open spaces and hoped to have...
