[va-richmond-general] Re: [Va-bird] Purple Marin Roost on the Pamunkey River
- From: "JANICE FRYE" <jjfdc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <fitzgerald3herb@xxxxxxx>, <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 14:19:32 -0400
Just a guess about their timing. In Richmond, repeatedly we have seen them
wait to move large numbers of birds into the trees until their 3 main/known
predators have been accounted for and are occupied for at least a few
minutes. Owls, raccoons, and opossums they cannot do much about after dark,
but if there are numerous hawks and falcons routinely showing up out there,
maybe they wait till the last possible second to give themselves an
advantage over that group. We never get full dark in the Bottom, but they
also only have the 3 raptors to deal with. Could even one bird be caught
long enough to put a device on it that would pinpoint the location?
Jan
Richmond
_____
From: va-bird-bounces+jjfdc=clearwire.net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:va-bird-bounces+jjfdc=clearwire.net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
fitzgerald3herb@xxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 12:35 PM
To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Va-bird] Purple Marin Roost on the Pamunkey River
Yesterday afternoon around five thirty PM I met with a couple of Biologist
at the ramp in West Point on the Mattaponi River to go up the Pamunkey River
to the area around Sweet Hall Marsh to study a Purple Martin premigratory
roost site that exists somewhere in that area. This is the second trip that
I have made to that area trying to pin down the exact location of this
roost. The roost location is very inaccessible to the public and it is about
a thirty to forty minute ride to the general area from West Point.
The area where this roost exists is in what appears to be in one of two
very large marshes that combined are about 1200 hundred acres in size and
because of the Hugh loops the river makes in that area it makes it hard to
pin the birds roost site down. We went up the river past the suspected area
of the roost to a transmission line that crosses the Pamunkey River just to
the west of Sweet Hall Marsh. There was thousands of birds at this location
and is called a staging area from which they gather prior to going to the
roost site. Even the expert Biologists could not estimate what I believe was
well over ten thousand birds and that did not include the hundreds perhaps
thousands of birds that were seen flying all over the two Marshes.
These birds set up to go to roost ten to fifteen minutes later at this
site than they do at the Farmers Market site in Richmond for what reason I
do not know and when they finally decide to leave the power line it is so
close to dark you do not any time to follow them before total darkness sets
in. Last night we did get a glimpse of the typical vortex they form when
going to roost over Hill Marsh but lost it in the darkness before we could
get close enough to pin down a definite GPS location.
It is my belief that this roost is considerably larger than the Farmers
Market Roost but because of the difficulty in getting near the site when the
birds arrive that is only my opinion. This excursion up the Pamunkey is one
pretty and exciting adventure and anybody that does not mind traveling in a
boat at night will enjoy making this trip. You will not only see Purple
Martins but also many other species that use and roost in this area. The
best place to view the birds before eight o'clock is at the Transmission
line after that take the cut through in Sweet Hall Marsh and set up almost
straight out from the cut through between Sweet Hall Marsh and Hill Marsh.
Anybody that can pin this roost down better than we have today please let me
know so I can update the site on the PMCA web site and report it to Sergio
Harding with DGIF by email at sergio.harding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jimmy Fitzgerald
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