The Mysterious Crunching Noise

I was walking along the street this afternoon when I heard this loud clacking, rustling noise. I looked around to see what it was, but alas! I could not determine the cause of the noise.

I did see something which bothered me, though. On this street, there is a tree under which the grass has completely died and the soil eroded because of its precarious placement on the edge of a small hill. Recently, steps have been taken to resolve this: an artificial woven mat was spread at the base of the tree to retain (future) roots and vegetation, and grass seeds were sown. So far, this seems to be successful.

As the new grass was growing sparsely, though, a second batch of seeds was sown. The grackles had taken advantage of this manna from heaven and had congregated in droves under the tree to feast on the seeds. As a fervent supporter of all growing things, I scared the grackles away... and was immensely surprised when the clacking noise stopped. The grackles were the cause.

In the past, when I came close enough, I have heard squirrels munching on pecans and sunflower seeds, my brother eating yogurt, and my grandfather slurping soup, but I had no idea anyone or anything could eat as loudly as those grackles.

There were so many of them that the tiny noise of one seed cracking was magnified to become a huge, incessant droning murmur.

Every little thing counts. I guess I could go on to make a wonderful, deep, heartwarming, and meaningful analogy about something like voting, global warming, freedom of speech, love, viruses, or tacos, but I won't.

I am astounded.