by Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F.
Member since:
September 9, 2006

It took 15 MINUTES for this flock of birds to fly past!!!

December 23, 2008 09:07 PM EST
views: 197 | rating: 10/10 (7 votes) | comments: 19

I just went out to my car to retrieve my camera from the backseat and, the moment I stepped outside, I noticed this HUGE flock of birds flying over my house here in Cloverdale in Northern California. They were flying north to south...

Here are some of the photos I took of them -- from several different vantage points because I had a lot of TIME to walk all around -- as they were STILL GOING BY!

I pulled out my camera and they just KEPT ON COMING!!! I've never seen anything like it in my ENTIRE LIFE!

(Each of those tiny black specks is a bird!)

I walked around -- up the hill behind the house and down the driveway -- and they were STILL flying by overhead!!!

I started timing it because I was just flabbergasted by the sheer number of them --thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of them!

It took 15 MINUTES for them even to start slowing down and, when I finally just gave up and came in the house THEY WERE STILL FLYING OVERHEAD headed south!!!

I want to say they were starlings but it was impossible to tell because it was getting very dark and it's very overcast and cloudy anyway today...

I've NEVER seen any birds that kept together in a flocks anywhere NEAR as large as this!!! It started to feel like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie!!

 

Here's the closest photo of one that I was able to take:

 You still can't tell what species it is, though...

Man! That was WEIRD!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Comments: 19

Lee P. Dec 23, 2008, 9:12pm EST
Maybe they are fleeing some nature caused event. 15 minutes is a lot of birds.
Rob Appell Dec 23, 2008, 9:14pm EST
I can't really tell, but I've seen a couple of species of birds that migrate in this manner...en masse. They almost look like crows. I say this because the next town over from where I used to live was plagued by crows; so much, that several televisions specials were done about them landing in the city every night...and making a lot of noise along with one huge mess. There were over one million crows 'living' in the town for quite a long while...until, all of a sudden, they left and moved on to another town about 30 miles away. Though crows don't migrate, it could be them just loving to a new location or another type of bird altogether.
Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Dec 23, 2008, 9:28pm EST
Yer darned tootin' 15 minutes is a LOT of birds, Lee! I'm thinking maybe they'd been displaced by extremely heavy snows up north... That's the direction they were coming from...

Well, Rob, I've seen large flocks of birds before but 15 MINUTES and they're STILL FLYING BY? That's HUMONGOUS!! (and I don't even KNOW how long they'd been flying past BEFORE I went outside to the car!!!) They weren't crows... I know that much for CERTAIN... I can tell a crow or raven from far away just by their silouhette and the manner in which they fly... Their heads were not shaped with the long, thick beak that crows have... These reminded me of a flock of robins almost... maybe just a teensy bit smaller than robins... But there HAD to be at LEAST 10,000 of them!! Probably MORE!
Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Dec 23, 2008, 9:31pm EST
OH! Do you remember the SOUND the "onlaught" of birds made in Hitchcock's "The Birds"? That thundering "rushing fluttering" sound? Groups of these did that -- like they were speeding up and then the next groups would be slower... It was actually EERIE!!
Pat V. Dec 23, 2008, 10:33pm EST
That is a LOT of birds. Could you tell how big they were?
Ron (in complete sheeple overload) W. Dec 24, 2008, 1:32am EST
Look like starlings to me. They fly in here in massive numbers, cackling and stripping the neighborhood of anything anyone has put out for the songbirds. Hate those little bat turds, and they're illegal aliens, to boot.
Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Dec 24, 2008, 3:20am EST
Yah, Pat... They were about the size of robins -- maybe a teensy bit smaller... not much, though...

Heck, CF... I shoulda joined 'em!! lol!

My thought EXACTLY, Connie!!

Me, too, Ron... The vineyard owners around here aren't too crazy about them, either... But, you know, the more I look at the photos, the more they DON'T look like starlings to me... Their tails are far too long and their beaks not long enough, really, to be starlings... Also, the MOST starlings I've ever seen together at one time was a hundred or so... Not TEN THOUSAND!

Come to think of it, they weren't "cackling", either! They were "tweeting" in a rather high register -- stacatto like... hmmmm....
''The One & Only BERF" .. Dec 24, 2008, 3:21am EST
Merry Christmas Pictures, Images and Photos
.
Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Dec 24, 2008, 3:36am EST
They weren't flying like starlings do, either, come to think of it... Starlings always remind me of a school of fish when they fly... They "bunch up" and then "billow out" in big, roundish "clouds"... These were flying straight across the sky -- not up or down or around -- and NONE of them stopped and perched anywhere... They all looked like they were running FROM something or FOR something and didn't have a moment to lose!
Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Dec 24, 2008, 3:38am EST
Thanks, Berf! And



to you, too! :o)
Ann S. Dec 24, 2008, 4:01am EST
That must have been AWESOME to see! Thanks for the pics. :)
Doyle ( IS SOOO 7 for 7 soon... ) C. Dec 24, 2008, 7:35am EST
Hmmm....I've seen large flocks in the midwest...but not usually a California thing. Interesting. :o)

Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~
~Sia McKye~ Dec 24, 2008, 9:11am EST
Life is full of little wonders like this, isn't it?
Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Dec 25, 2008, 12:22pm EST
It WAS, Ann! You're very welcome!

I thought it was, Doyle... And you're right, it's NOT really a "California thing" at ALL!

IF you pay attention, Syl... IF you pay attention! **jean waves**
Jeanette(Nettie) R. Dec 26, 2008, 7:39pm EST
wow! that is a lot of birds! Have you checked with your the local chapter of the nationa audubon society? they may be able to tell you what they are.
Jean, just the teensiest bit odd, F. Dec 27, 2008, 11:56pm EST
Good idea, Jeanette! I think I'll give that a try! Thanks!
Victoria H. Jan 13, 2009, 3:40pm EST
Thanks so much for posting this to my group =Sky Shots= !!
Victoria H. Jan 13, 2009, 7:27pm EST
Thanks so much for posting this to my group All Photo Essays Here !!

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