A gathering of blackbirds (with a rewrite)

You've seen them. Sitting. Waiting. Squawking. They sit on wires, line rooftops, cover every branch on every tree.

They could be starlings or blackbirds or grackles. Whatever species they belong to, they are gathered en masse.

You sit in your car hoping and fearing that they will take flight.

When they do, because a horn was honked or the spirit simply moved them, it is a hypnotic breathtaking sight. They move as one, a roiling, flapping, sky-darkening mass of millions of birds. Even Hitchcock couldn't pull off this spectacle.

You wonder what drew them here to this road filled with rush hour traffic and stores and fast food restaurants. That must be it. Maybe these millions of birds are looking for our edible human debris. Where is the food that supports this many birds? Do they eat so little or do we waste so much?

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EDIT: I started writing this this a.m. I just whacked about 50% of the post. My mind was taking me down a path, a quick sketch of second person narrative that placed you among the traffic and the preternatural (though decidedly natural, if you've seen this first hand) gathering of blackbirds.

The horror wasn't going to come about from a potential Hitchcockian death by pecking, but from making the mistake of parking to watch. That is, parking in the wrong spot to watch. One of the things that you miss when viewing this from a car, is the sound the birds make. A sound that doesn't emanate from their beaks as birdsong, but rather the collective sound of splashing droppings. Being still and under this avian mass is not recommended.

While my humor can push the envelope of propriety, rarely if ever is it scatological in nature. Poo jokes don't make me laugh. So, I chopped it and wrote this.

Not that this was a joke. This was supposed to be a post about the juxtaposition of a truly magnificent feathered spectacle with the mundane routine of a drive home from work. I know that many people take the presence of millions of birds as just a simple given. The time I spent in Texas, where I witnessed this many times at dusk, I never once shrugged it off as boring. I was always filled with wonder. Where were they coming from? Why gather in such a unnatural setting? Where did they go?

The photo, while not mine, is real. The birds do in fact blot out the sky. When seen from a distance they appear to be a dark rippling cloud. I wonder when The Birds will be remade.

Any strange gathering of animals that you've ever witnessed? Leave a comment, let us know.