The Media Crackle Roost 



BY SANFORD OMENSETTER 



The Purple Grackle, or Crow Blackbird ( Quiscalus quiscula), 

 is our most punctual spring migrant. Observations during 

 twenty years have invariably found it in Delaware county by 

 March 1st. Essentially a social species, this trait is nowhere 

 better set forth than in the habit, outside the nesting season, of 

 assembling in vast flocks to pass the night. 



For a number of years Media and vicinity have held special 

 attractions in the way of roosting-places for the Crackles. Some 

 two decades ago, especially toward the western gate, where the 

 imperial Pmdownias, "born to the purple," stood file-leaders to 

 rows of stately maples, the Court House Square re-echoed nightly 

 with their not unmusical chatter. As neighbors, great numbers 

 of the Chimney Swift (Chxtura pelagica) roosted in the recesses 

 of a large, unused chimney on the Court House. But a storm 

 came and crushed the maples so badly that most of them had 

 to be removed, and a capstone was placed upon the chimney, so 

 that both sets of lodgers reluctantly took their leave. The Swifts 

 scattered through the town and the Grackles frequented Row- 

 land's wood and the woodland along Kirk's Lane, on the hill- 

 side west of Media. 



Just previous to this. Third street in Media had been con- 

 tinued westward across the valley which until the early 70' s 

 contained the borough water-works, and the grading turned 

 Broomall's Run, an unpretentious stream, into a lake of several 

 acres' extent. On the eastern side of the lake and stream the 

 old ' ' Camp Meeting Woods, ' ' principally chestnut, was wrought 

 up for commercial purposes. For several years this cleared 

 area was a fine harbor for rabbits, but as the chestnut sprouts 

 grew apace, the discerning Grackles came each year in larger 

 hordes until, of late years, in the autumn, they might be num- 



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