Blackbirds in my yard

Black­birds, black­birds up in a tree
Count them, count them, what do they see?
One for sor­row, two for joy
Three for a girl, four for a boy
Five for sil­ver, six for gold
Sev­en for a secret that’s nev­er been told

Tra­di­tion­al rhyme

I’ve been leav­ing the fall­en leaves where they lay in my yard. I’ve heard it’s good for the local ecol­o­gy, giv­en ben­e­fi­cial bugs and small rodents a place to win­ter outside.

The oth­er day, a squadron of black­birds came for a vis­it. Seems I may have left them some snacks. Cir­cle of life, I suppose.

Update: I have been informed that these are prob­a­bly grack­les. Please update your poet­ry read­ing to suit.

Inter­est­ed in prints of my pho­tos? Let me know, and we can work some­thing out.