7/2/04
  Yesterday, around noon, I was watching an immature grackle giving itself
a wild bath in the much too small birdbath outside my kitchen window. Then
after a while, one of its parents come over with a beetle or something in
its mouth.
  The baby started begging, but before the parent put the insect in its
mouth, it dips it in the water. It does this several times, immediately
reminding me of racoons - who wash their food before eating it.
  Is it possible that grackles do this all the time? Or maybe just with
certain kinds of foods?
  Anybody out there an expert on grackles?

  Gema Crystal