Purple Martin Madness!

Here are 2 e mails we just received from Texas Master Naturalists about the purple martins that will (hopefully) discover the birdhouse in the field at Sandpipers.  

 

Sandy J
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Many of you may also know that the same massive purple Martin pre-migration is happening nightly above the south parking lots of Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. Also in the 10's of 1000's if not more.

An awesome sight. 

VBMC is on Ed Carey near 77 Sunshine Strip.

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Hi everyone. I just wanted to let you know that there is a pre-migratory purple martin roost in McAllen. The birds are roosting in oak trees behind Office Max on Ridge Rd just east of Cynthia (this is just east of Rio Grande Regional Hospital). Tens of thousands of martins were seen a few days ago.

Purple martins are a migratory songbird that have become completely dependent on humans to provide housing for them to nest in and raise their young. Some of you may have martin houses or may have seen them in people's yards.  After the nesting season, the martins will gather in huge groups and spend the night in trees together before they make the long trip to their wintering grounds in Brazil. Some of these roosts can have well over 100,000 birds! I really have no way of knowing how many birds are at our local roost, so I'm really just guesstimating, but it's a lot of birds.

The roost will most likely continue throuh the month and into September, but the numbers will start dwindling as the birds begin their migration.

I encourage anyone who wants to see this awesome site to go as soon as possible. There is also a roost somewhere in downtown Harlingen, but l'm not sure