Dear Grackle,
Many Texas Monthly readers who also read Texas Parks & Wildlife would be interested to know why a grackle was dive bombing Emily McCullar while she was interviewing Meredith Walker for the May issue of Texas Monthly. The publishers of Texas Monthly must have thought it unusual as they included it as an enticement, "WHEN GRACKLES ATTACK," on the magazine's cover.
Sincerely,
A fan of both magazines and grackles
Dear Fan,
Love that my relative got a cover shout-out (but not surprised… iconic behavior). Reader, for some background, the grackle(s) in question were flying so close over Texas Monthly interviewer Emily McCullar that the wind from their wings moved her hair. “Maybe it’s a good sign?” quipped interviewee Meredith Walker. “A creature of the earth wants to be near you.” While I do not personally know the grackles involved here, I can make some educated guesses as to what was going on. First of all, we reached out to McCullar and found that the interview was conducted at Radio Coffee on Menchaca, notably full of people enjoying drinks and tasty snacks — the grackle “attack” may actually have just been a fearless bird (or birds) hoping to steal food off someone’s table, and happening to invade the interviewer’s personal space in the process. Grackles rarely mean to attack people, but when they do it’s usually in defense of a nest or a very young bird just out of the nest. It’s also possible McCullar and Walker unknowingly conducted this interview a little too close to some babies. Later in the article, McCullar asks, "What power does H-E-B have over grackles?" Let me tell you — it’s the perfect habitat: plenty of food (like the hordes of crickets that come to the lights), often water, scattered trees for nesting, plenty of perches, and lots of human activity that can deter potential predators. Great place to raise the kids!
Yours,
Grackle
