"escape" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 13:23:22 -0600, Katra
opined:

In article ,
escape wrote:

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:36:38 -0600, Katra

opined:


I think I'm going to keep out of this one. ;-)
I have mixed feelings...

Yeah, I think Grackles are cute and I don't wish them ill,
but they DO tend to get a bit overpopulated and drive out
other species!

They are native birds.


Duh.
And humans are native to the planet (altho' there are some theorists
that say otherwise), but that does not make our overpopulation any less
destructive.

Native birds or not, that does not mean that an over-population of a
"native species" cannot do damage to the _other_ "native speices"!!!

Do you really want only ONE type of bird to inhabit the entire planet???

Please don't put words in my mouth. I didn't say that. Grackles are
native
birds meaning they are not here to displace other native species. There
is room
for them when we don't bulldoze everything in sight so they have been
displaced.
Grackles travel in huge flocks, sometimes into the tens of thousands.
IT's
their natural way of life.

A couple of weeks ago, I was going to work downtown, and every lamp post
and sign along I-35 from Caesar Chavez to 8th St. was covered in grackles,
all facing the same direction and all about a wingspan apart. It was very
cool in the dawn light and very Hitchcockian.............. I'm glad they
don't roost at my house, but it seems very alive in places where they do,
jockeying for position and singing and all that. The pecking order must be
very complex.
I like them.