[va-richmond-general] Re: Shockoe Bottom martin roost 8/6, 8/7
- From: "Janice Frye" <jjfdc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <whitea60@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 10:54:50 -0400
Sounds busy! Thanks for the update. I have had some family stuff to do, so
it is good to hear from you. Did the gray raptor have dark sideburns by
chance? Sometimes the peregrines go in the trees instead of streaking by
and grabbing a meal. Thought we were done with the red tails when we got
the report of a dead one nearby, but I guess word gets around!
Jan
_____
From: whitea60@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:whitea60@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 10:30 AM
To: jjfdc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject:
I visited the roosting site yesterday (thursday). I arrived at 8:05 p.m.
and the sky was filled with sliding purple martins. When most of them had
roosted a very large hawk
sailed in and landed in the roosting trees. Seconds later he/she emerged
with a helpless martin and landed on a wooden post and proceeded to eat.
While he/she was in the middle of his/her meal another large hawk sailed for
the trees and duplicated what was being down by the first hawk. I clapped
my hands and both flew to a more comfortable place to eat .....being chased
by two mocking birds.
This morning I arrived at the roosting site at 5:30 a.m. The martins were
barely audible at that time. But, 10 minutes later, they begin to chirp
loudly flying from branch to branch and sending out their low flying
sacrificial representative to find out whether predators were in the area.
There were none at that time. But, at 6:00, a large gray hawk slided to the
noise area of the roosting trees. When it landed, a thick dark cloud of
martins rose from the treetops. I clapped my hands loudly to scare the gray
unwelcomed specter. This clapping noise caused about 200 to 300 more
martins to leave. Then the remaining quiet, frightened martins began
leaving the roost using a zig-zag flying pattern. At 6:30, when I was
about to leave I saw a large gray hawk on a post near the entrance of the
parking lot. I am not sure whether that was the same hawk or not because I
never saw it leaving the tree.
Other related posts:
- » [va-richmond-general] Re: Shockoe Bottom martin roost 8/6, 8/7 - Janice Frye
