"What is a Grackle?" and " A Good Joke"

Since you asked ... Oh you asked alright!

At FCI Three Rivers there are literally thousands of birds, it's like a bird sanctuary there. The dominant species there is an iridescent black bird that I always thought was a species of small crow. Turns about I was wrong about that; they are called, Grackles, no relation to their bigger neighbors.

Anyway, I used to go out of my way to fed 'em. Yeah, I'd roll up bread from the Chow Hall and sneak it out everyday, everyday, more than once a day actually. I also used to sneak meat out for the cats that were on the yard. Sneak, smuggle ... remove, you get the picture, it was forbidden by the guards to remove any food from the Chow Hall ... they'd rather throw it in the trash; not all of the guards were like that, but a lot of 'em were. In fact there was this one guy who worked in the Safety Department, a real dick. Once he caught me he made it his personal mission to stop me. Yeah, like some stupid Stooges movie ... I once got angry with him about it and told him off; the Captain at the time saved me from getting in trouble, but never did get over it ... hope his feet stink!

My point in this is that I fed those birds for years running, and, crazy as it seems, I began to realize that those Grackles reconized me. Yeah. They'd see me coming and flock around me. Or I'd be out on the Recreation Yard and they'd see me from across the yard and flock over to me ... I just assumed that they understood that when I had a brown bag in my hand that they were getting fed ... but, it seemed like they were watching me even when I didn't have a feed bag, like they knew it was me.

 

Move Forward

The other day I was watching a TV show called Strange Evidence (I think that's the name) and they did this one story about this guy who was hated by this crow. Yeah, every time this guy walked past this one spot on the road, this crow would attack him! Yeah, they showed film of it; damnedest thing you ever saw. Well, the explanation was that crows are SUPER intelligent and have extraordinary memories. The scientist said that they will remember the faces of humans, for years! And when they questioned the guy why this crow kept attacking him, and then explained this fact about how crows have super memories, he understood. It seems that a few years back he had found a wounded crow and had tried to nurse it back to health, but it istead had died in his hands. They surmised that that crow had been watching him and had attributed that death to him, and therefore went after him every time he saw him, for YEARS on end. Crazy but true story. So, even though Grackles and crows are not related I did learn on Google (thanks Conny) that Grackle are very intelligent too ... so, my Grackles did know me.

And now you know: Don't piss off a crow! Hmmm. We don't have Grackles here at Hazelton, but we have a lot of crows ... hmmm. I wonder how many crows it would take to fly me out of here? Hmmm. I'll start feeding them tomorrow :)

"A Good Joke"

This guy meets his two friends at the meeting place and says, "I can't go on the fishing trip."

"Why?" asks his friends.

"Well, my wife says we need to spend some quality time together ... she has this movie she wants us to watch"

"Ok" says his friends, "But we'll miss you."

Later that night he shows up at the fishing hole and his friends are obviously surprised. "What happened?"

"Well, we had a nice dinner and then my wife put this movie on, "Fifty Shades of Grey". We watched it, then she told me to tie her to the bed. I did. 'What now' I asked. She said for me to do what ever I wanted. So... Here I am!!!"

:) Men! Gotta love 'em!

 

Hope you had a nice Memorial Day. Peace. mark

 

 

Bruceton Mills, 5-26-2023