Has anyone else noticed the absolutely huge starling roost just off of
highway 509 down in the area of the Port of Tacoma? My wife and I were
driving home via that route at around 8 p.m. on Thursday when we looked up
and saw that the sky was absolutely filled with birds.

They rolled in in great clouds that filled the entire horizon. (It reminded
me of the shorebird clouds that one sees at Bowerman Basin except that those
clouds are white and these were black.) I looked west in the direction they
were flying and was able to see tens of thousands more already perched on
warehouse roofs and power and telephone lines. There were so many birds on
the lines that they created a solid wall from one pole to the next. Mixed
in with them were large numbers of crows.

One evening this next week I intend to return to the area just before sunset
and attempt to take some sort of census of their numbers. I wouldn't be
surprised if there were a million starlings there.

Steve Kimball
Federal Way, WA
skimball at halcyon.com