Yesterday, on a late afternoon drive into town, I came upon an ugly scene in the ranchlands. I found more than a dozen dead red-winged blackbirds strewn across the road in a wide swath. The birds were in an area where huge numbers have been flocking together, as they do before migrating south. Recently, I have witnessed hundreds upon hundreds of the birds swinging back and forth through the air in mesmerizing murmuration flights.
I’m
of the mind that one of two things explains what happened: either the birds
were mowed down by a vehicle before they could lift from the roadway where they
had gathered, or they crashed to the ground en masse while in one of their murmuration
flights. I have seen a video of red-winged blackbirds in a murmuration crashing
into the ground, resulting in the death of many.
The scene of carnage rather haunted me as I drove into town. On the return trip home, I stopped so Desiree and I could remove the scattered dead from the road and place them in the barrow ditch.
—Mitchell
Hegman
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