In a message dated 8/1/2006 5:18:42 P.M. Central Daylight Time, jreese5@xxxxxxx writes: went to a purple martin site that requested that "new" roosts be reported, but since there was one already reported on a golf course a short distance away, I thought this may be the same or an overflow. Any opinions on whether this could be a separate roost? Should be reported? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Small Purple Martin roosts appear and disappear especially during early migration and may be just temporary staging areas. The larger historic roosts and this year even huge numbers at places not previously noted as roosting sites have formed earlier than ever. One new roost in AR was hosting many-many thousands of Martins well over a month ago. There is much speculation that the hurricanes probably destroyed a lot of Purple Martin housing to our south and these birds moved up looking for nest sites but finding most already taken by birds faithful to their regular sites and finding very few natural sites they probably did not nest. A few even nest in gas station signs along I-55 in Mississippi, building coffer dams of mud in the open letters to keep the nest from falling out. I've found them in Shell, Mapco and a Citgo Stations over the past years:o) The big roosts on the coast, Dauphin Island and Lake Pontchartrain, formed earlier this year than in previous years. The large roosts here in the mid-south have been showing up on radar each morning for over a month. The monster one on the Mississippi River in TN has grown and shrunk a couple of times but seems to have leveled out now. Evidently the birds were moving in, staying a while and moving on south. There are also roosts as noted near Jackson, TN, Grenada and Sardis Lakes in MS and Wheeler area in Alabama. These all show well on Nexrad around 5:30 in the morning. If you have the opportunity to see one of these roost as the birds arrive in the late afternoon, do so. I've taken a lot of people to witness such and they all come away talking about the masses so thick above you that the sky is almost blocked from view. It is a spectacle only surpassed by a TORNADO FUNNEL of swallows, now that is really breath taking! Good Birding !!! Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA 6298 Memphis-Arlington Road Bartlett, TN 38135 =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________