We get these dust storms here that the weather people have started calling “haboobs”. Mile-high walls of dust stretching to the horizons in both directions, advancing across the desert.
Before one gets started, we get this really vicious, whippy high winds, and it’s fun to see how the various birds react to them. The finches, wrens, sparrows and other smaller birds disappear into hiding; the pigeons stay out but remain grounded for the duration.
But the grackles take full advantage, performing aerobatics like flying backwards or doing inverted loops, tricks that can’t be done in a calm. And they seem to prefer a sizeable audience of non-flying species.
We get these dust storms here that the weather people have started calling “haboobs”. Mile-high walls of dust stretching to the horizons in both directions, advancing across the desert.
Before one gets started, we get this really vicious, whippy high winds, and it’s fun to see how the various birds react to them. The finches, wrens, sparrows and other smaller birds disappear into hiding; the pigeons stay out but remain grounded for the duration.
But the grackles take full advantage, performing aerobatics like flying backwards or doing inverted loops, tricks that can’t be done in a calm. And they seem to prefer a sizeable audience of non-flying species.