[TN-Bird] Re: Purple Martin roost in Nashville
- From: Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Tennessee Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:32:06 -0500
A reminder for early risers that you can see the Purple Martins
leaving their huge colonial roost on the weather radar every morning,
between about 5:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. The link I use is:
http://radar.weather.gov/radar_lite.php?rid=ohx&product=N0R&loop=yes
Most commercial weather radar products (e.g. Weather Channel, Weather
Underground, local TV stations, etc.) have the "noise" filtered out,
which would include the birds. Go right to the NOAA source for radar
birding.
The martins are the large expanding doughnuts. The Nashville roost
is too close to the radar site to see well, but a very large roost
north of Cookeville is prominent lately. A smaller roost just north
of Clarksville is also visible. A large roost in northern Alabama
(Wheeler area) comes in to view later in the morning. The Nashville
and Wheeler roosts are easier to see on the Huntsville radar:
http://radar.weather.gov/radar_lite.php?rid=htx&product=N0R&loop=yes
A fun thing to do is to watch the expanding doughnut on the radar,
then go outside just before it reaches your location. If you look up
and listen, you will soon spot the high-flying martins moving overhead.
Note that if it is a rainy morning, the radar will probably be set to
the less sensitive "storm" mode rather than the "clear air" mode, and
the birds will not show up. Also, the diagonal line you see flash in
to view for an instant pointing ENE just after 6:00 a.m. is the radar
looking right into the rising sun.
Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
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