Ah, the final entry about our backyard bird adventures here in a small patch of Knoxville suburbia. I have always told people they didn’t have to travel to far off wildlife preserves to find nature, that it was indeed, carrying on right out their door, if they would just stop a while and really “look”. This stay here has seemed like an experiment in that sort of “looking”. And I can’t get over how much we have “seen”, so my little pep talk to others came true for myself.
I may have mentioned in an earlier blog from here that a wonderful nighttime pastime was sitting on the back patio and watching hundreds of blackbirds, grackles, and starlings come flying in from all directions just prior to sunset. They first fill the neighbors oak tree, but then, as the sun goes down, spiral rather wildly down into the stand of bamboo that is in their yard. Not that these birds rank high on anyone’s “most enjoyed” list, what with their almost deafening, squawking, rusty-hinge sounds, but Elena and I are no bird snobs and just enjoy watching the show.
It was simply amazing too, how many of them could cram in there and not be seen. She and I peaked in from the bottom of the bamboo. There was a lot of rustling and waves of wing beats as they flew up and out again at our arrival. I realize they were really settling into the canopy and therefore hard to see, for where else is there to go in bamboo. I decided to do a little research into this, and what an amazing thing. I found that if these birds had to rate a habitat on a 1-10 rating, bamboo would get the max score.
It seems the folks at the Dept. of Agriculture have been looking into some way to draw the 1,000’s and they claim, even millions, of blackbirds that can settle near urban areas and drive the people mad with their noise and their droppings. Their habitat often consists of wet areas, cattail marshes, or where we are on the Cape, phragmites. They found, when given a choice, the birds would choose to make their reservations in a bamboo/cane patch. And so, they are looking into planting stands of bamboo away from residential areas and trying to draw the flocks there. And why bamboo, you wonder? For the tropical ambiance it gives?
It seems the reasons are many. First, bamboo has no lower branches for a would be predator to climb up to find a sleeping bird as a midnight snack, yet with its thick canopy, it can fit an amazing amount of birds in a small area. Large concentrations of birds means less chance for predation and in the colder months, a group huddling together gives off more warmth. Also, bamboo is so tightly packed that those hawks who make a living off catching birds, like Coopers and Sharp Shinned and Merlins, can’t get through the dense growth, so another plus for our squawking group. Maybe that is why they feel free to make a racket, zero need for stealth.
Also, other trees have a tendency to A) be overcome by forest succession and B) simply die from the abundance of blackbird droppings. Guess bamboo just eats it up and keeps on growing. No worry about succession, stands can last for 70 years or more, and they have all the height of a tree with none of the drawbacks.
I wonder if the neighbors ever knew any of this when they decided to put in a patch in their yard? I wonder if they knew you could never get rid of it? I wonder if they knew that all the neighbors around would have to DAILY knock over the bamboo shoots in their yard, as much as 50 ft away from the stand itself to keep it from taking over their yard? Probably not.
But there you have it; my daughter’s new home is adjacent to the most desirable blackbird real estate in town. I also read that they have been known to use the same roosting spot for up to 30 years. So Elena can eventually do her thesis on roosting behavior of blackbirds in a suburban setting. Maybe this blog will give her her start.
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