The Birds

Totally off-topic post here, just to test out the system on our new address, but bear with me, people. (That is, if anyone is reading out there - you know you can leave comments here, if only just the occasional "Get bent, McGinnis" or "I hate your picture.")

I work at home, in an office that affords a second-storey inner-city view of trio of trees - a maple, a weed-like false sumac, and some third arbor of indeterminate provenance. In the winter, the view of leafless branches can be pretty bleak, but in the summer I have a nice, leafy canopy to gaze at while trawling for inspiration - a view that, until recently, was usually populated by squirrels and little else.

This year, however, has seen an explosion of bird life; the usual sparrows and grackles, but new additions like robins and blue jays and another stranger - a black bird, smaller than a crow, that reveals upon closer inspection an irridescent blue-green head. (Look, I'm no Audubon - that I can identify anything more than a seagull and a pigeon is a minor miracle.)

My wife swears it's the result of the city ban on pesticides - a sort of bird dividend. I've also noticed a lot more sightings of avian predators - hawks circling high overhead. I'm sure the local cat population is a lot happier, as well. Any theories, folks?

(UPDATE: A casual web search reveals that the black bird with the blue head is a common grackle. Just what the bird with the dark plumage covered in a lovely pattern of dots is remains a mystery to me. I've got to buy a book or something, I guess.)