[va-richmond-general] Re: Tonight in the Bottom (purple martins)
- From: "JANICE FRYE" <jjfdc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <warfield101@xxxxxxxxxxx>, <va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:52:20 -0400
I assume you remembered to keep your mouth closed under the trees! ;-) It is
not hard to understand why there would be negative sentiments toward a roost
like that without a PR campaign by sympathetic individuals. I was also
struck by the intense odor the other night. Remember the lady in Tidewater
who ended up with a rookery of large wading birds in her yard years ago?
Kinda felt bad for her.
Jan
_____
From: va-richmond-general-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:va-richmond-general-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Al & Linda
Warfield
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 7:43 AM
To: va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [va-richmond-general] Re: Tonight in the Bottom (purple martins)
Linda & I went down to see the Martins last night and noticed something
interesting. After most of the birds had already settled down in the
Bradford Pear trees, a few of them were still flying around the streets. One
of them came into the parking lot where several of us were standing and
started flying up to the white-painted concrete wall as if it were looking
for a place to roost. Then it flew around the parking lot and skimmed the
blacktop of the street for awhile like it was confused and not aware of
where the famous trees were located. Sue Ridd actually tried to herd it to
the trees, but it didn't work. The sky was about dark at this point.
Eventually they all settled down, but it took awhile. Maybe those stragglers
were late coming in and young enough not to know the ropes yet.
One other thing - don't do as I did and forget not to walk under those
trees. That got a little messy. At least I experienced the noise under
there. It is really noisy with 5000 or more birds only a few feet above.
Oh, one more thing - we tried to do our part and went into Havana 59 for a
drink so we could let them know why we were there. When we told the waiter
we came to see the birds he didn't know what we were talking about, although
he had seen them flying around. Most of the folks there are not interested
in anything remotely close to birds. And I was wearing my very birdy Birdjam
T-shirt - slightly the worse for wear from time spent under the trees.
Couldn't figure out why nobody else was sitting in that area of the bar!
Al Warfield
----- Original Message -----
From: JANICE FRYE <mailto:jjfdc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:37 PM
Subject: [va-richmond-general] Tonight in the Bottom (purple martins)
The family had a hankering for River City Diner's bacon/cheddar fries and
onion rings, so we went there about 9:30. On the way home at 10:05 the
birds were completely quiet. A brief check with a flashlight showed white
bellies and elicited a few twitters without any startle reaction. If anyone
from the city reads this, it might be time to wash the sidewalk under those
6 trees where they concentrate. :-) Did anyone try to count tonight? Just
curious-will they increase by about a thousand a day or is it more uneven?
Goodnight!
Jan
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