For some unknown reason, every summer thousands of Purple Martins come together
and roost in the live oak trees at Highland Mall to prepare for their migration to South America in August. Someone from the Audubon society told us the estimate this year is 400-600K birds! So Saturday night we packed our lawn chairs and umbrellas and headed over to see what it was all about. And let me tell ya, it was one of the coolest things I've seen in awhile.
Spencer found a little friend to play with while we waited for the sun to start setting (and she let him borrow her cool bee-noculars, as Spencer calls them). Then, gradually we saw birds starting to make their way to the area.
They started trickling in, but soon the sky was filled with Purple Martins and they were swirling around in formation preparing to land in the trees. Apparently there's a hierarchy and the oldest male birds are in the top branches and the others start filling in the rest. Just when you'd think, "wow, that's a lot of Purple Martins," it would seem like they doubled. They circled and swarmed for at least 30 minutes and it was fascinating.
The sound was incredible - almost like a waterfall. Once the roosting was complete (or complete-ish), I had to get closer! Spencer and I grabbed our umbrellas and went right under the trees. Spencer didn't like how stinky it was, so he exited but I grabbed a little video.
It was an excellent outing and we might even go back this weekend. We invited Paw-Paw to come and check it out because he is interested in Purple Martins. If you live in Austin it's definitely worth the trip to Highland Mall. On Fri-Sat nights, the Travis Audubon group is there sharing info about the birds, but of course you can go any night. It won't disappoint!
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