Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
Swooping and diving above the fields at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in coastal North Carolina are a flock of boat-tailed grackles, Quiscalus major. With it's long, v-shape tail that looks like the keel of a boat, of the boat-tailed grackle can be found along the coast. The spectacle of hundreds of blackbirds flying together over the fields is what originally caught my attention. Photographing the birds wide within the landscape and slowly getting in closer and closer, showing only a portion of the flock as they took off from the fields, many with beaks filled with seeds.