I had been filming at the river's edge one morning for probably an hour when I suddenly heard a sound I had never heard before. Hidden in the marsh for at least that hour (and perhaps all night) was a flock of blackbirds so large that the sound of their wings could be heard a quarter mile away! They were not vocalizing; they were simply flying as a large flock. The sound of their wings just kept getting louder as they flew closer and then over me. I have never heard anything else quite like it. Perhaps if you have been to some place like Bosque del Apache where huge flocks of waterfowl congregate on their migration, it would not impress you, but I have not. I never thought the sound of wings could be so loud.
How many were there? If I remember right, the thought that I was able to frame no more than about a third of the birds in the flock crossed my mind. Multiply the birds in these photos by three and you begin to understand how many birds took off.
The effect was enhanced by the fact that they all took off at the same moment so it went from being completely quiet to the loud drumming of a million wings.
I have seen those endless streams of black birds flying through an area, but I have never heard them make the noise I heard that morning. I don't even know what species of bird they are. In a photo like this, you can often pick up a red edge on the wings if there are red-winged black birds mixed in the flock, but on closer examination, I can see none. So, I don't even know what species they were. But, I won't soon forget the sound that they made!
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