I saw what was perhaps the same flock on the 15th or 16th feeding in the median
strip and along the several roads on Leesburg Pike (Rt. ) at the Bradlee
Shopping Center in Alexandria. I was lugging a couple of heavy bags of
groceries and had no binoculars, but I believe there were at least 200 and
perhaps twice that. They stretched almost a block along the main and service
roads there. They were apparently feeding on grass seeds in the recently mowed
green strips. I did see a few starlings, but not many, and they could have
been local residents that just joined in rather than part of the nomadic
cowbird flock. I have seen this event several times over the years at or near
the same place.
I also noted that most of the rush-hour drivers queued up at the stoplights
there didn’t even look down at the teeming masses mere yards from their cars.
I suppose that one is either a birder or he/she isn’t—kind of like parallel
universes.
Good birding.
Dave Davis
Arlington
