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The Haunting

The Common Grackle’s gregariousness has not made it popular with agricultural interests, since large flocks of blackbirds can cause extensive damage to crops. In addition, roosts in urban areas are messy, noisy, and potentially a source of disease. As a result, grackles are viewed as pests in some areas and subject to a variety of control measures, including hazing, spraying crops to make them distasteful, or – in some cases – killing the birds themselves.

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Gooseberry Island

Gooseberry Island is the town of Westport’s southernmost point, and is part of the Horseneck Beach State

 

“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it’s to sail or to watch — we are going back from where we came.”

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Killer on the Loose

Still clinging to the small twig after attack. No matter how tiny and adorable hummingbirds look, they are not exactly friendly birds.

You've probably seen aggressive hummingbirds fighting over feeders and flowers. Do these tiny birds ever injure themselves in battle? click on image

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Northern Cardinal

The male Northern Cardinal is perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird.  One fascinating northern cardinal bird fact—mostly male birds do the singing, but this is one of the few species whose female sings. A pair of cardinals might even share song phrases, using them to communicate at nesting time. Female cardinals will sing back and forth to reinforce pair bonding early in the breeding season.

Diet

Mostly seeds, insects, berries. Diet is quite varied. Feeds on many insects, including beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, flies, and many others, also spiders, centipedes, and snails. Most of diet is vegetable matter, including seeds of weeds and grasses, waste grain, leaf buds, flowers, and many berries and wild fruits. Young are fed mostly insects.