[texbirds] Purple Martin Roost - Austin
- From: Shelia Hargis <shelia.hargis@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 06:47:20 -0500
Last night Laurie Foss and I met Julia Heskett, Julia Balinsky and Andy
Balinsky at the traditional Purple Martin roost location (previously
Highland Mall, now ACC Highland) to scout out the situation for the
upcoming Travis Audubon Purple Martin parties. Boy, I'm glad we scouted!
The birds did NOT roost in the trees where they have roosted for the last
two summers. They roosted in the trees just north of Jack-in-the-Box at the
intersection of Airport Blvd and Highland Mall Blvd. There is an unoccupied
building there and a mix of Live Oak trees and Crepe Myrtle trees. Given
the amount of guano on the ground, they have likely been roosting there all
summer.
Summer before last, the birds started out in the trees at Wells Fargo on
Highland Mall Blvd and then moved to the trees in Highland Mall parking
lot. There is about 150' between those two locations. The current roost
location is about 850' as the crow flies from last year's location. So, who
knows if the birds will stick with the location near Jack-in-the-Box or
will move to another location later in the summer. We will be monitoring
the situation frequently over the next week and will post on Texbirds and
Travis Audubon's website as to where they are roosting.
Make plans now to join us at a Purple Martin party or two. The parties are
July 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26 from 7:45p to 9:00p. Bring your family,
friends, and co-workers. It is an amazing experience to watch the birds
come in to roost!
Here's how the evening progressed (numbers are very rough estimates):
7:35p: ~50 birds
7:45p: ~300
8:15p: ~1000
8:25p: ~1500
8:35p: ~3000. This is about the time Laurie realized that they were
starting to perch in the trees near Jack-in-the-Box.
8:40p: We moved to the birds' location!
8:45p: ~10,000. This is many more birds than I am accustomed to seeing at
this time of the year. Maybe the nesting season went well and they finished
early. Our numbers at the roost typically peak in late July. It will be
interesting to see if that is the case this year or if birds start heading
south earlier. Stay tuned or better yet, join us to find out!
9:15p: still a few birds flying around but most were packed into the trees
Already there were other people stopping to watch the show or stopping to
see what we were looking at. We started educating them right away and
letting them look through our binoculars. What fun to see their excitement
and curiosity! If anyone wants to help us educate the visitors during our
parties, let me know.
Thanks,
Shelia Hargis
Austin, Tx
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