Introducing Major Quiscalus!

He's actually Quiscalus Major, the boat-tailed grackle. Round these parts, the locals call them mezzkin cackles.

And my beautiful mezzkin cackles are back in the pine trees in my front yard. They were pretty scarce and pretty quiet for a few months. I assume they've been busy raising their babies but now they're back, babies in tow, teaching them their ABC's. Some of parents seem to have short fuses...

"crrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeek, cackle cackle cackle squeak crrrrreeeeeeeeek!"

"chirp?"

"no! listen carefully... crrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeek, cackle cackle cackle squeak crrrrreeeeeeeeek!"

"chirp?"

"sigh... ok, one more time... crrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeek, cackle cackle cackle squeak crrrreeeeeeeeek!"

"chirp chirp?"

It's not all heart and flowers between me and my cackles. I don't think much of the way they bully the smaller birds nor the way they steal and eat babies from other birds' nests. At the same time, who am I to criticize them for feeding their own babies with anything they can get their shiny ebony beaks on.

The males took a sharp right turn on their evolutionary journey. Or else someone in the spiritual powers-that-be office has a very strange sense of humor. The male's tail seems to have been turned ninety degrees, making it perpendicular rather than parallel to the ground. Makes for some pretty comical flight patterns. The take-offs are especially entertaining.

The babies are adorable, all frowzly-feathered and nervous-looking and the parents are back to their pre-mating wackiness, talking talking talking all day. It's such a beautiful soundtrack to have playing in the background of my lazy autumn days. I can walk quietly toward my pine trees, stand under them and never once interrupt their songs. They've obviously never been reminded "now, let's not talk all at once" because it sounds like a lively jungle.

And I love it.

For more photos of males and females and to read more about my beloved boat-tailed grackles:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Wikipedia
eNature.com
(photo scanned from my Golden Book's BIRDS of NORTH AMERICA)