2 New roosts discovered in MN

[Tony Lau]

I tried to post on the Roost watch form but the form doesn't work right.
Most of the birds from the Avon roost are now about 25 miles NW on Big Swan lake in Todd County. Larry Leonard, Kelly Applegate and myself spent several days watching radar and scouting for possible locations and it was found last night. Being 95 miles from the radar site made finding the source difficult because the birds need to get to about 500ft to show up on radar at that distance. We found them staging on wires several miles to the east of the lake and followed them as sunset neared. We plan on checking this out by boat sometime in the next week, they are roosting in the reeds just like they did in Avon. There was about 1000 martins at the old roost site on Sunday. We don't have a good estimate of the size of the new roost but it shows up as a 42 mile ring before it dissipates in the morning.

Another smaller roost was discovered by Dick Doll just south of Willmar. We had been looking for that roost for 2 years, we assumed they would be on water like the other roosts but they are in a cornfield.

A 3rd roost ring shows up on radar but hasn't been confirmed yet, I'm pretty sure it's on Clearwater lake in Wright County. I hope to get there soon.

[Guest]

That is sooo cool that you found them. I am jealous. My birds have been gone for weeks, I don't know of a nearby roost, and I am getting very little advice on how to renovate my houses for next year.

Keep us posted on your success!!!

Paula

[Louise Chambers]

Tony,

Thanks so much for the roost reports - that is exciting news! It sounds like MN has had a pretty good year. Roost reports don't show up automatically, but are added after staff reviews them. I will check and see if that's why your reports are not on yet.

I hope everyone who can goes to visit a roost while some martins are still with us - they are truly wonderful events.

Louise

[Tony Lau]

Louise, the problem with the report form is with the Firefox browser, I was able to enter them using Explorer.

[LarryL-MN]

I watched the martins come into the Big Swan Lake roost last night. It was spectacular. It appears to be larger than the Avon roost was at its peak in 2006. Although a boat would get you much closer, it can be viewed easily from the public access with binoculars. The birds started coming in at 7:30PM and were all in by 8:40PM. To get precise directions Google Big Swan Lake Todd County MN. The access is in the Southeast corner of the lake. Grab your binocs, see you at the roost.