Purple Martin Majesty

The Pedersen's have gone to the birds!

A 10,000 large community of Purple Martins have decided to make downtown Richmond part of their southern migration. They were here last year and David, being the avid "birder", insisted that we visit the Shockoe Bottom where they were roosting every night. The birds spend about a month in the Richmond area before pushing on towards South America where they'll stay during the winter.

Well -- they're back this year and the city even celebrated their presence with a festival this past Saturday -- which Dave insisted we attend. :-) The festival included information from the Audubon Society, free Raspberry Sherbet (semi-purple in color), and of course -- the roosting of the Purple Martins.

Every evening, around 7:30, they start to swarm the skies above the Shockoe Bottom and grow in numbers by the minute. The way the swarm darts to and fro, it looks like a school of fish in the sky . At the peak of their Richmond stay, there will be approx 10,000 Purple Martins. After circling the area for a while, batches of birds (usually a couple hundred to a couple thousand birds at a time) will swoop in (sometimes grazing the heads of the people viewing this spectacle) and roost for the night in the Bradford Pear Trees that line the area by the 17th St. Farmer's Market. This event has received so much attention because while the Purple Martins depend upon human aide, it is extremely unusual for them to choose such a "public" place to roost.

Unfortunately, the people were not the only ones interested in the birds. 1 Peregrine Falcon and 1 Red Tail Hawk have become aware of the large community of birds. The Purple Martins will land in a tree, start getting settled in for the night and then will be chased out by a hawk who is looking for dinner. On Saturday, 3 Purple Martins became part of the "food chain" and the people at the festival actually "booed" the hawk as he sent Purple Martin feathers down upon their heads. But such is the animal kingdom!

There are so many birds, people compared it to Hitchcock's movie The Birds and it is an appropriate comparison. However, it still is rather fascinating to observe. So -- if you're looking for the Pedersens --- well, we've gone to the birds!!