A pair of yellow headed blackbirds have been serving as an alarm clock for Linda Welsh, up the Meadows. Thanks to Linda for posting the photo.

According to https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/yellow-headed-blackbird, where I borrowed this striking close up photo, “The male Yellow-headed Blackbird is impressive to see, but not to hear: it may have the worst song of any North American bird, a hoarse, harsh scraping. Yellow-heads nest in noisy colonies in big cattail marshes of the west and midwest; when not nesting, they gather in flocks in open fields, often with other blackbirds. At some favored points in the southwest in winter, they may be seen in flocks of thousands.”