Video of huge Purple Martin roost site

[Patti from Kentucky]

There is a late summer roost site for Purple Martins in Louisville, and Jeane and I (with one or more of my sisters tagging along occasionally) spent several evenings on the riverfront enjoying this spectacle.  And spectacle it is...tens of thousands of birds at its peak!  It was such an amazing experience we returned several times.

We both shot some video and photos...I haven't gotten my act together on the photos, but I did compile one video.  This combines clips from shorter videos both of us shot.  YouTube kinda sucks the quality out of video, but it'll help if you bump up your quality setting as high as your internet connection will allow.  When you see the great mass of birds in the first couple of clips, keep in mind that this is one small sample of the sky and at times the entire sky was filled with birds, from horizon to horizon...

We both have lots of clips in this compilation, but I gotta give credit to Jeane for the last one in the series...the magical geese that appear as the light is dying out!

http://youtu.be/4lfMC_5SR5s

Enjoy: 

[Bobbie Ireland]

Mother Nature! What is she like! What a privilege to witness such a scene. The vortex was a stunner. Thanks, Patti and Jeane!

 

[Donna]

OH my, that was so cool Patti & Jeane. Is there a reason why they do this? Just ballet cuz they can? The geese were awesome too! I'm a water girl, I could sit there all day and watch the world go by! Thanks!! 

[patsy6]

Wow!  This is worthy of Alfred Hitchcock!

[Dot_Forrester]

  Patti and Jeane. What an amazing sight!

Dot in PA

[Paul Hamilton]

Wow! What a treat!

Thanks, Patti and Jeane. The geese were a great ending.

[MAK]

VERY cool! 

[Wing Goose]

That was great!  Thank you so much.
       
                          Lola

[Patti from Kentucky]

Is there a reason why they do this? Just ballet cuz they can? The geese were awesome too! I'm a water girl, I could sit there all day and watch the world go by! Thanks!! 

I was curious about why they do this, so I googled around a bit, and couldn't really find anything except quotes like "no one knows why they do this."

Cornell's All About Birds (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/purple_martin/lifehistory) just has this to say:  "Purple Martins roost together by the thousands in late summer, as soon as the chicks leave the nest. They form such dense gatherings that you can easily see them on weather radar. It’s particularly noticeable in the early morning as the birds leave their roosts for the day, and looks like an expanding donut on the radar map."

The Louisville site is one of those big enough to show up on radar in the mornings...there are a couple more big ones in Kentucky.  We experienced a giant hatch-out of mayflies on one of the evenings, so I'm sure the martins had loads to eat that night.

And yeah...the river on a pleasant summer evening is a nice place to hang out...the Louisville skyline lit up in the background...the riverfront is often windy enough to be relatively mosquito-free.