North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["" <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>]

Last year in our southwestern Ontario village I saw a few Grackles.  This 
year there are too many to count, and
> they are a real pest of a bird.  They are dirty, leaving their droppings 
> everywhere, and drive off other birds.
> 
> Very aggressive bird too.  I cannot scare them off.
> 
> Any information on this grackle problem?
>
I've eaten grackle.  Not too bad.
Back when I was in undergrad, working as the diener in the postmortem lab at 
the vet school, one of the vet students who worked with me was pretty close 
to destitute, and she and her husband would eat just about anything they 
could catch.  I remember one time, he'd shot a bunch of grackles & 
blackbirds, dressed 'em out like doves, wrapped each breast in a strip of 
bacon, placed 'em in a shallow casserole dish, poured a can of cream of 
mushroom soup over 'em, baked 'em, and I will say that they were as tasty as 
any mourning dove I ever ate.

Lucky Pittman
Hopkinsville, KY