You too, MF? I love birds and gardening (herbs especially, veg next, flowers and shrubs after that but not as much). Living in the desert bites, because nothing grows worth a damn here and the birds are relatively few in type. Pigeons, doves, grackles, wrens, warblers, hummingbirds, roadrunners (had a couple of HUGE roadrunners in our back yard last year - that was pretty cool), very rarely quail.
I like the grackles - I think I may be the only person in Las Vegas who does; most people hate them worse than pigeons, but I think they're a hoot to watch. During mating season, all the males wander around doing their mating "dance" -
they puff up their throats with air and stick their beaks straight up into the air. Then they walk around, making this weird honking noise and ruffling their wings. Of course they can't see where they're going, so they run into each other and trees, bushes, etc.
The females stand off to the side and watch. I swear you can see them thinking "that's IT? Those are my choices?? I'm surprised our species has lasted this long . . ."
Still, I think they're pretty clever. A number of years ago I watched one trying to get a drink out of a very shallow puddle on the sidewalk. They have very long, pointy beaks and the water wasn't more than a 1/2 inch deep at most. After one try, the grackle stood back and looked at the puddle . . . then he stepped into the water, leaned over, and lay his head down sideways into the puddle. His beak was almost submerged - he just opened it up and lapped the water with his tongue.
Totally cool.
Love birds.
Here's a Great-tailed Grackle - the kind we have here:
