These small black birds gather in the tops of our neighborhood trees to raise a continual chorus of high-pitched trills and warbles. When disturbed, they simply migrate to another tree, and the din rises again. We tend to call them starlings, although I’m not sure what they actually are.

I decided to shoot this noisy group sitting perched in a sweet gum at the back of the empty schoolyard — but I really didn’t expect to see a couple of redwing blackbirds so far from water.