[obol] Re: A day to swallow
- From: Hendrik Herlyn <hhactitis@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: BILL ROSIE TICE <watice@xxxxxxx>, OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 15:03:08 -0700 (PDT)
Last Saturday, Oscar, Pam and I had well over 100 Purple Martins at Fern Ridge
Reservoir, including about 80 perched in one tree. By far the most I've ever
seen in the West!
Hendrik
__________________________
Hendrik G. Herlyn
Corvallis, OR
"Nature is not a place to visit. It is home."
-- Gary Snyder
--- On Thu, 5/23/13, Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [obol] Re: A day to swallow
To: "BILL ROSIE TICE" <watice@xxxxxxx>, "OBOL" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013, 2:28 PM
In the Midwest I often saw flocks of scores of martins hanging up in migration
when weather was bad.
-- Alan ContrerasEugene, Oregon
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
I blog at: oregonreview.blogspot.com
From: BILL ROSIE TICE <watice@xxxxxxx>
Reply-To: BILL ROSIE TICE <watice@xxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 21:24:31 +0000
To: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [obol] A day to swallow
Hi Folks,
After running an errand in Dallas, I headed over to BSNWR to see what the wind
blew in. I soon saw a Rough-winged Swallow. After about a half hour I ran
into Chris Adlam, and we soon added a purple martin, as well as a black tern
carrying a small fish. Tree, VG, Barn and Cliff Swallows were all there as
well, and as I had 6/7 of Oregon's swallows, I thought I'd watch for a while
to see if the Bank Swallow was still around from last Sunday. It began raining
harder, so I headed over to Morgan Lake. At the low part of Smithfield Rd I
saw what I assumed was a flock of blackbirds sitting in the road, but something
did not look quite right, but I pretty much ignored that suspicion until I was
right upon them, and then could see they were Purple Martins. There were some
20 or so sitting on the road, 10 or so on the power lines, and more sitting on
the bee hives, and a few flying around. It was difficult to get a count, but
the first
atttempt yeilded 36, and the second 37. They were still there when I returned
from Morgan Lake a half hour later, and I counted at least 40 two times.
To me this was a really cool spectacle. In migration I have never seen more
than one solitary bird. I assumed they did not migrate in flocks as well.
This sighting more or less changes my knowledge of them.
Has anyone ever seen similar away from nesting colonies during spring
migration?
Bill Tice: Birding - The best excuse for getting outdoors, and avoiding chores.
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