It typically happens in springtime – black birds with whitish-yellow eyes perch on top of Waterloo Records and watch customers as they walk inside, sometimes diving down and squawking. This is when Waterloo Records goes into grackle mode.
The birds are protecting their young. Grackles nest in the downtown store’s palm trees, and sometimes, a baby grackle will fall to the ground before it’s able to fly, said co-owner John T. Kunz. With the baby bird on the ground, the adult birds will protect it from anyone they consider a threat by nipping at people’s heads and making noise.
“The whole clan starts assuming that anybody walking near their baby is a predator that wants to eat it or harm it,” Kunz said.
This act of nature becomes a small issue for the iconic record store as birds swoop down around customers walking into the store. Earlier this month, the store’s Instagram page had a warning: “We have a very protective grackle defending her fallen baby by our front door. Please use our north most door to avoid getting divebombed.”
The fallen bird, which did not die, prompted about half a dozen grackles to form a line of defense outside the store, Kunz said.
“This just happened (Thursday) and I know it went on for several hours. I left here around 7:15, 7:30 p.m. and they were still on-guard and squawking, as only grackles can, at everybody that got near,” he said.
But by Friday, the baby bird was gone and the grackles were no longer playing security guard. Grackles have been through this routine before – Kunz guesses that incidents like these have been happening a couple times a year for the last eight to 12 years. To be clear, no one has ever been seriously injured, he said.
Kunz himself was attacked by a grackle about three years ago. He was walking into work when a grackle swooped down and clipped the back of his head. The bird didn’t do much damage – Kunz’s head was protected by a black Waterloo Records baseball cap.
“It’s like preparing for the electricity to go out during a storm,” Kunz explained. “It’s something that may happen, or two or three years may go by without it happening.”
Kunz attributes Austin's recent bout of windy conditions as to why two baby grackles have fallen to the ground in as many weeks.
“If a young chick is flexing its wings and a big gust of wind comes along and violently blows the palm tree, they might find themselves outside the nest and on the ground,” he said.
Going into grackle mode is not as serious as it sounds. The shop doesn’t often consider a downed grackle an urgent matter. Managers just make sure cashiers know to tell customers who are leaving to get to their cars quickly or keep an eye out for the pesky birds.
“Everybody knows to do what we can to make people not be annoyed and be safe,” Kunz said.
Austinites seem to understand that grackles are part of life here. Comments on the store’s Instagram post include, “I need to see this,” and, “hey world your record store may be cool but is it ‘warning you about protective grackles’ cool.”
“Thanks for helping protect them,” another comment says.
Besides, is there anything more Austin than running into grackles at the city’s 42-year-old record store?
Like one commenter said: “God forbid a Mama grackle is doing her part to keep Austin weird.”
