Website Jo Castillo Art




Back to my website:

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Birds, Not the movie, but scary!

We went into Austin for the reception yesterday and drove from South Austin on Lamar to the reception in North Austin. Near downtown we ran across these grackles. The noise is so loud and obnoxious. I feel sorry for the people that live and work in that area. We immediately thought of "The Birds", the Alfred Hitchcock movie. Yikes!

The huge amounts of birds flying.

Some settling on the wires.

Thes spots are the grackles nesting among the ones flying around.

14 comments:

Joanna said...

These, of course, remind me of the photos I took in August of '07. In particular, see these two posts: Aug. 7 and Aug. 8. Those are the dates I posted the photos. I actually took them a couple of weeks earlier.

Regina Calton Burchett said...

Cuhreepy!! Makes you glad you're not driving a soft-top, right?
There are some nice little birds that congregate at Brodie and William Cannon. They spread out on the lines a little more, and just gossip. Your birds look to have an evil laugh as you drive under them.

Jo Castillo said...

Joanna, the photos are too similar and scary. I chuckled as we both put "Yikes!" at the end of our posts. Ha.

Regina, yes, they look mean and the noise is so awful and loud, just like the movie. They do have beautiful, colourful feathers.

Lynne the Pencil said...

There is always something a little scary about anything in unexpectedly large numbers. Must be some primal instinct!

Great photos!

Jo Castillo said...

Lynne, I guess we become the hunted. :) Thanks for stopping by.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Jo: I did a post on scary fishing trips and one happened after I saw 'The Birds'. I left the woods when the birds started to gather by the hundreds in the trees. My mind said I was silly but I felt better safe then sorry. Maybe they saw the movie!!!! LOL

Jo Castillo said...

FG, maybe you are right. Ha. I would have left those woods as well. We have some buzzards that roost in the acre past the next house to us and they come out in the mornings in a burst of whooshing of the wings. Gene counted over 100 the other morning. Not my favorite species.....birds that is of any kind. :(

Teresa said...

They do look rather ominous - altogether different from the chipper little collection of colorful birds we have at our feeders: cardinals, two woodpeckers, mourning doves, and few others I have yet to identify.

Jo Castillo said...

Teresa, there are a few, no probably many, places in downtown busy Austin where the birds congregate. You can see the photos Joanna took in the comment above, but hers were Purple Martins. There are crows and buzzards close to Barton Creek Mall on the highwires. So spooky looking.

Miki Willa said...

Just amazing. What makes Austin so popular for these birds? We have woods behind our house, but our birds are smaller and congregate in much smaller numbers. The only bothersome ones are the Stellar's Jays who bully the smaller ones. Thanks for the photos.

"JeanneG" said...

Yikes is right. I just wouldn't want to be walking under them. Must be lots of "dropping" going on.

Jo Castillo said...

Hi Jeanne, Euuuu to the droppings! Ha.

Anonymous said...

I love the picture of the evenly spaced "grackle dots" in the last photo.
Here's a great link to the migratory flyway system. Texas is in the Central Flyway, and this time of year is "roundup" before the fly south!

http://www.birdnature.com/flyways.html

Jo Castillo said...

Hi, Leslie. Looks like you figured it out. We will have to see if they are there next time we go to town or if they are staying to torture us!


About Me

My photo
Bastrop, Texas, United States
I Grew up in a small town , Magdalena, New Mexico. I enjoy art and the pleasure other people get from my work. I always donate some of my sales and art to charities, especially for children. That started in Bolivia with Para los NiƱos. "I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns." -- Winston Churchill

Labels

#inktober (48) #inktober2019 (27) #inktober2023 (20) #inktober21 (11) abstract (1) Acrylic Paintings (75) Arizona (3) Art House Project (14) artist (88) artist blogger (355) artist blogger  instruction (3) artist blogger  instruction (20) artist blogger  instruction (17) artist blogger instruction (40) artist friend (7) at (1) Balloons (1) Baseball (204) Bastrop Sketchers (11) Bastrop TX (34) Bolivia (5) Calendar (1) Canada (3) Challenge (5) Charity Events (74) chile (4) classes (3) coaster sketch (9) colored pencil (58) computer art (5) DailyPaintworks Auction (3) demo video (4) Digital Painting (14) doodle (1) dphotos (1) exhibit (154) Figure (4) Fine Art Friends (3) Floweb browsing (1) Flowers (33) food (10) Footwork (1) fused glass (3) Gallery (3) gluten free (5) Golden Open paints (2) Golf (12) House Concert (1) iMac Sketch (1) Inktense (2) inst (1) instruction (75) iPad Sketch (90) iPad sketches (102) iph (1) iPhone painting (3) iPhone sketch (24) jo (1) Jo's Notion (9) Jo's Thoughts (298) Joanna (2) Joodles (2) Landscapes (137) Marines (29) marketing (3) meme (6) Music (68) New Mexico (130) Nonsense (2) Oil Painting (72) Oil Pastel (1) painting buddies (1) PanPastel works (3) Pastel (29) Pastel Demo (60) Pastel Paintings (408) pastel sketch (129) Pastels (12) pears (3) Peru (1) Photo (83) photography (1) Photos (970) Plein air painting (56) podcast (1) poll (1) pottery (2) Powwow (3) Recipe (6) restaurants (6) scenery (17) Sculptor (7) sculpture (4) seascape (2) sketch (4) Sketches (1784) snow (2) Still Life (36) Stu (1) Studio (26) Texas (69) Trees (36) tribute (5) under painting (1) Unsorted (7) videos (4) watercolor (178) watercolors (9) web browsing (262) web page (11) wetcanvas (1) WIP work in progress (15) workshop (8) World Blog Hop (2) Yesterfest (2) zentangle (2)