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Toss if you like, brother Faldage, but my observations here in Alabama are consistent. All observations made by me this winter found that flocking birds invariably fly towards the rising sun in the morning, and then fly towards the setting sun at night.
Moreover, in watching the actions of roving bands of blackbirds I have discovered a remarkable aspect of the collective behavior of these birds that is new to our understanding of the decision making process of all animals.
I will explain this remarkable discovery later.
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Carpal Tunnel
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My observations here in New York are also consistent. I wonder if my sample is any more delocalized than is yours. Have you been traveling about in many areas of Alabama or have you noticed the behavior of a few birds in but one small area?
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Pooh-Bah
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It is an interesting topic. As well as compass direction, are you able to compare the location of major food and water sources vs night roosting sites?
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Quote:
My observations here in New York are also consistent. I wonder if my sample is any more delocalized than is yours. Have you been traveling about in many areas of Alabama or have you noticed the behavior of a few birds in but one small area?
How dare you question my observational methodology? Did I not send you the Birmingham Black Barons baseball cap that I promised two years ago?
Of course, my sample is limited. Can I help it if my sample is centered on the early birds that pass over my route to work at dawn?
But non-the-less, if limited, my morning birds are consistent . Not once this season have they flown any direction but towards the rising sun.
(If you've lost the cap I'll send you another one.) 
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Quote:
It is an interesting topic. As well as compass direction, are you able to compare the location of major food and water sources vs night roosting sites?
Not exactly Zed, I simply assumed that when flocks of blackbirds are flying in the morning that they are not out to steal hubcaps but to eat. But I do know that they can be seen feeding on the acorns of suburban lawns, and in the direction of their morning flights lie what in Alabama passes for suburbia.
I will report back to you the suspicions I have about their doings in these neighborhoods after I venture out into them this Saturday.
See you Sunday. 
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Quote:
Quote:
My observations here in New York are also consistent. I wonder if my sample is any more delocalized than is yours. Have you been traveling about in many areas of Alabama or have you noticed the behavior of a few birds in but one small area?
How dare you question my observational methodology? Did I not send you the Birmingham Black Barons baseball cap that I promised two years ago?
Of course, my sample is limited. Can I help it if my sample is centered on the early birds that pass over my route to work at dawn?
But non-the-less, if limited, my morning birds are consistent . Not once this season have they flown any direction but towards the rising sun.
(If you've lost the cap I'll send you another one.)
That's right. You did not send me a Birmingham Black Barons cap. And the one I did not lose I bought from the Cooperstown Ball Cap Co. so you don't have to not send me another one.
My birds are equally consistent.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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How on Earth does a blackbird crack open an acorn?
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Carpal Tunnel
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> I simply assumed that when flocks of blackbirds are flying in the morning that they are not out to steal hubcaps
ah, you're observing rural blackbirds!
> How on Earth does a blackbird crack open an acorn?
That's nothing, you should see it try to get Norton of its computer! ;]
Last edited by maverick; 03/24/06 02:34 PM.
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Heck, like a kid with spinach and cake I couldn't wait untill Saturday and so I hurried through the Inglenook neighborhood this afternoon spying on the blackbirds in order to expose the modus operandi of their hitherto secret cult.
And here is the skinny...
Blackbirds vote with their stomachs.
Winter feeding flocks reach an optimum size by simple accretion. That is to say that the larger the feeding flock the more efficient the collective eating machine is in ravaging the countryside and protecting its members from predation.
This communist structure is self rejuvenating; the specialization of individual birds is temporal and does not require a "pecking order" in order to effect roles that require the individual to forgo feeding.
In a nutshell, the strong and well fed bird operates from a innate biological imperative to watch for danger while the others feed.
It follows that within the larger flocks there are more sentinels availabe who are willing to watch from the tops of tall trees and then to fly to other nearby feeding grounds after a suitable time has passed.
The direction of the movement of the flock is controlled by a visual "critical mass" mechanism that dictates that flock movemnt is always towards an accretionary population of the future.
And then the gang breaks up in the Spring and they become husbands.
Last edited by themilum; 03/25/06 01:59 AM.
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