Jamestown swarmed by blackbirds

The night of Feb. 11 black birds swarmed into Jamestown at West Fifth and Jefferson streets. As the photo shows, there were hundreds of them, and they made quite a racket with their constant cawing. Alfred Hichcocks 1963 horror movie ‘The Birds’ may have come to anyone who observed this event. Indeed, a flock of crows is known as a murder, and in folklore blackbirds are often a symbol of death. However, this is a perfectly normal occurrence. Scientists believe blackbirds form swarms for different reasons. One may be to keep warm. Another is to group-up before a move to a better location for food. The latter was probably the case as nary a one returned the next night. Their only trace was a lot of broken twigs in the snow beneath the trees in which they had swarmed.

P-J photo by Karen Christy