Massive Grackle Swarm Visits Hunterdon County
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, NJ (CBSNewYork) - It sounds like something out of the Old Testament, but there's nothing ominous here.
WCBS 880's Sean Adams On The Story
Podcast
In fact, avid bird watcher John DeMarrais was tickled pink to see the black birds - 30,000 to 50,000 grackles swooping down on the farm fields of Franklin Township.
"Pretty exciting to see that many birds. They create this long snake-like line in the sky when they go south and it sometimes takes five minutes for them to get by and they have this intense chattering. The noise really is the thing that attracts you first. You hear this din and then you see the birds," he told WCBS 880 reporter Sean Adams.
"When they settle down on the ground, they all come down at once and will settle in a cornfield or some kind of place where they can feed for a while. But they're very nervous birds," he added.
DeMarrais suspects they're nibbling on the scraps of the fall harvest.
Once the snow comes, they'll likely get the hint and head south.
