Re: [cobirds] Common Grackle movements in Lafayette, Boulder County

On the Grackle theme, on the morning of 9/10 I watched an estimated 2,500 Common Grackles moving past St. Mary Catholic Church and Lee Gulch at South Prince Street in Littleton, Arapahoe Co. They were all going SE in a more or less steady stream of flocks over 45 min. 

The local breeders had departed some time ago, and I'm sure these were part of a migratory movement. Most of them showed tail feathers in heavy molt. I did not see a similar movement at the same time period this morning, and these were much larger numbers that I happened to have seen over the St. Mary area in the past two Septembers. 

There is a rather large roost of migrants at this time of year SE and near C470 x Santa Fe (Douglas Co.), but that is about 2.5 miles south and the wrong direction for the birds I saw passing on 9/10, plus that roost flies out shortly after sunrise, about 1.5 hours earlier than my observation on 9/10. 

David Suddjian

Ken Caryl Valley

Littleton, CO

On Sun, Sep 11, 2016 at 4:07 PM, Charles Hundertmark <chundertmark8@gmail.com> wrote:

This afternoon, we had a large flock of Common Grackles in our front yard - not a particularly exciting bird for list purposes, but an interesting phenomenon. For about a week or so now, I've been noting flocks of 100-200 grackles moving through the neighborhood. They are feeding vigorously and moving on quickly. Interestingly, many of them are molting. I'm wondering if the grackles undergo a molt migration in the fashion that Ted Floyd has so insightfully informed us about for Chipping Sparrows.

Chuck Hundertmark
Lafayette, CO
303-604-0531

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