Date: 02/04/2001

Number: 1

R w Blackbirds are here year round, not at our feeders, but in the swamps, marshes and all rural areas. They just hit our gardens, here in town, hard the past couple of weeks. We never did see just a few this year, we got them in huge numbers.....So, I guess, this is a first seen in that regard.

Our garden and feeders are absolutely over run with wintering female Red-winged Blackbirds this week. When a flock descends down to the feeders it looks like it's positively **raining blackbirds. More and more, down, down, down. The ground and the platform feeders seem to crawl with them.
The flocks number over 50 birds with half again as many Brown headed Cowbirds mixed in. We've _never_seen so many red-wings at one time nor so often in our garden and we certainly don't like the company they keep! By their numbers, they drive away all other birds until the flock suddenly flashes
away. We wonder why so few stunning males accompany this harem. Do they winter in separate flocks?

Slidel, LA

Latitude: 30.2 Longitude: -89.5

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