Room with a view

I wrote for hours on my porch today (my summer office). All day, I watched the recent invasion of grackles we have at the feeder.

My husband hates them. He thinks they are loud and obnoxious and bullyish and messy.

I love them. I find them sassy and humorous. They tease the cat and taunt the dogs and rule the roost. All day, while I wrote, they argued and fought and totally pigged out. That green box on top of the fence has peanuts in it. The bluejays and squirrels come to get the peanuts and the grackles holler at them.

Not a bad view from the ole office window....

Grackle cackle solution

In case you're interested, the hanging CD solution is pretty darned effective!

Who knew?

Here's the deal:

Grackles love to nest in pine trees. They are meticulous about keeping their nests clean.

The baby grackles leave "fecal sacs" (I know, I know....eeeeyew) that the adults then carry away.

They are attracted to swimming pools because they have an instinct to look for water. (Supposedly, at one time, they mainly nested by rivers.)

So they leave the fecal sacs in or beside your pool!!

The good news is that the babies are only in the nests for about 18 days.

Now, see? You learned something today.

Grackle cackle

So, we have this grackle problem.


I used to not mind the grackles. I find them sort of humorous.

But this year, I've changed my mind.

They are here in hordes and their favorite thing to do is to swoop over our swimming pool and leave deposits (if you know what I mean.)

Deposits everywhere.

In the pool. On the deck. On the patio furniture. On my favorite Adirondack chairs.

So we Googled the problem and, of course, everyone in the universe has a solution.

Since I couldn't find a Mr. Flip...

....we chose the next most popular solution. Hanging CDs in the area.

Yes, CDs.

It's a lovely look.

It's sort of a Hillbilly Country Club.

But will it work?

I'll let you know.