DurhamNtx's blog: "Durham Mouths Off"

I have a question... This has been driving me crazy! (A short drive, I realize...) But every year, around the end of October, when it begins to get cold and avian species begin their annual migration to southern, warmer climes, this particular phenomenon occurs which baffles me utterly. I see it tho a lesser extent in spring, but it is such an extreme in mid-fall every single year. Why? Why is it that, at every MAJOR intersection, in the early morning and late evening, I see birds? Not just flying, or camped in trees, but on every overhead power line, electric post sign and roof edge on the north side of the intersection? I rarely, if ever, see a large number on the south side of an intersection. Always, the vast majority are on the north side. And they park on both the east and west sides of the north/south street at these intersections, but ONLY on the northernmost side of the east-west street of the intersection. Below is an illustration - the top of the pic being north: And I'm not talking 50 or 60 or so - I mean 200-300 birds! It's spooky - I keep looking for Tippi Hedren to run screaming down the sidewalk, or Alfred Hitchcock to appear saying, "Good morning. I should bet that you just thought it was a movie." (For those born in the successive generation from mine who hate late-night TV and TCM, I refer to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, starring Tippi Hedren.) The timing is not what I question. Again bird migrations are in full swing. But why hundreds of grackles and starlings - BIG DARK birds - and not swifts or thrushes? And why ONLY the north side of the intersection? And WHY on power lines, signs and roof edges? Signs I might coud see - to keep warmer. Not power lines - that would produce hundreds of single-serving Thanksgiving entrées. And roof edges? It's usually windy and in the 40s in the mornings - it's colder than a welldigger's ass up there! Strange is not strong enough a word to describe my feeling of the phenomenon. It's SPOOKY! And when I come home later in the day - 4:30 PM or so - they're there again! The days I come home at 2:00 PM they are usually gone, or far fewer. It's almost as if they leave for the day, then go back later that afternoon -about an hour before sunset. And it happens every year! I invite - nay, BEG - EVERYONE to venture some theory or cite some book or web site or other source(s) to help me understand it... Rock on! Durham In Texas