martins on the move

Have you seen any martin roosts in your area? This is the time of year to note the sites and spectacular behavior of roosting Purple Martins. See for example this link which tells about a roost having more than 125,000 martins within the last week.

The famous Causeway roost at Lake Pontchartrain often has more than 200,000 birds. Many of these birds have already departed, while our "northern" birds arrive in the southern U.S. (and then depart for their wintering areas) at a later date.

I just checked the Wisconsin eBird site for this past week, and only small numbers of Purple Martins (4-6) were reported from any locations in this state. Let me know if you're seeing larger concentrations, e-mail me at: iltlawas@earthlink.net