The Corpus Christi Roost: Awestruck by Martins.

[Scully]

Busy with the hustle and bustle of getting ready for another year at school, I finally got free around 5pm on Saturday, and on impulse my wife and I decided to drive down to the coast to see the Corpus Christi roost described by John and Louise.

We departed in some amount of haste, the roost being about 160 road miles away and sunset arriving about 8:10pm down here this time of year. Fortunately almost the whole way was Interstate. En route, I discovered that in my haste I had neglected to bring the directions but I remembered the ballpark location from the "google" map, that the roost lay at the corner of a golf course, and that the apartment complex began with an "S".

Driving non-stop, we arrived in the area about 7:15 pm. I figured the roost would be easy to spot by the clouds of birds overhead, but such proved not to be the case, we did find the golf course with hundreds of martins plunge bathing and flying around a small pond on it but after a number of wrong turns trying to figure out which way the martins, grackles and starlings were moving we didn't locate the apartments ("Summit Apts") until about 7:45pm. Two other local martin landlords were waiting there also.

At that time a few hundred martins could be observed "kettling" ( a hawk watch term used to describe groups or flocks of circling hawks) in a few scattered flocks circling about, a "few hundred" martins alone being an impressive sight.

Grackles, starlings and lesser numbers of cowbirds were pouring in and occupying the live oaks amid the apartment buildings, no martins had yet lighted.

As the afternoon turned into dusk positive clouds of gliding and wheeling martins appeared in the sky overhead, thousands, all circling and milling. More purple martins that I had seen in my whole life. At first perhaps a hundred feet up, the clouds wheeled lower and lower until they were just above rooftop height, the sky filled with purple martins.

Higher in the sky yet another cloud of martins appeared. Numbers were difficult to grasp, the whole assemblage could have easliy exceeded 30,000 birds. Mind boggling to see so many martins at one time in one patch of sky, in swarms on a scale one associates with freetail bats rather than birds.

As the dusk deepened vortices of thousands of martins were circling no more than forty feet up until they abruptly began to plunge in impossible numbers into a few live oaks and Arizona ash trees, no more than 30 feet tall, surrounding the aparment complex office.

Branches sagged as martins contunued to pour in packing every twig and branch, in densities far greater than blackbirds or starlings commonly roost. Seemingly unafraid of humans, you could walk right up to them and stand close by. The air was filled with a carcophony of low churring sounds, quite unlike what martins produce at their colonies. The best description being sort of a continuous scolding sound, similar to that they use when mobbing enemies at their colonies, but produced in a continuous racket.

As we watched a small branch broke under the weight, leading to some rapid math on our part: 50-55 grams per martin ~ 10 martins to a pound. 30,000+ martins~ 3,000+ pounds of birds settling into the trees.

The digital camera I had brought proven sadly unequal to the task, recording the wheeling clouds of martins overhead as blurred streaks. Photos of the roosting birds came out completely dark, "autobalance" brightening them to a grainy, Picasso-like montage.

Oddly enough, both deficiencies proved somehow apt, conveying the absolute surreal quality of the experience (see photos below).

Some birds like Eastern Kingbirds completely change their behavior on their wintering grounds. The same seems to be true of Purple Martins, probably they converge into these huge, bat-like roosting swarms all winter long down in South America. I had heard of these assemblages, but words do not do them justice, I have never seen any bird pack their roosts so densely in such huge numbers as do Purple Martins.

The roosting swarms in South America, when they combine with related martins down there, must be truly amazing. And what an abrupt behaviour shift too, when single martins and small group break away in late winter and early spring, to make their epic lonely journeys back to our colonies.

We hope to drive down again next Saturday evening, and bring better cameras too.

Amazing.

Mike Scully

[Guest]

Thank you for sharing these very good pictures.

[iluvbirds]

Oh WOW Scully! Thanks for posting these!....

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[Laverne]

Ahhh, Scully...

Wasn't it amazing? Wasn't it awesome? Wasn't it spectacular, incredible, phenomenal, mesmerizing and exciting? Wasn't it beautiful... I am glad you and your wife took yourselves to see it.

Time is growing short. If you would like to witness a Purple Martin Roost for yourself - you had better hurry.

Go to PMCA Home Page and click on the Roost window. Scroll down to the map at the bottom and click on your area. A list of suspected and authenticated roost will appear. The ones with a red asterisk have not been confirmed.

If there is one within driving distance, (as Scully has shown, driving 160 miles in 2 hours 15 minutes was worth it) make the trip. You will experience a show like you have never seen in your life and you will never forget it as long as you live.