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Posted by Bryant Roberts on 18:18:34 07/24/05
After observing the Purple Martin roost in the trees in front of the Race Trac gas station on the west side of Davie Road about .4 miles south of I-595 several times during the evening arrival I finally got out to see what the morning departure looked like. When I arrived at 6:05 AM the roost was very noisy and most of the sky was still dark with only a faint glow in the east. The wires in front of roost trees were solid with Martins but only a few could be seen flying low around the roost in the area illuminated by the lights of the gas station. By 6:10 the morning glow had spread over the eastern sky and there was more activity, the Martins were flying out from trees and wires at the rate of several hundred per minute but many were circling back to the roost making it hard to estimate how many were actually leaving. At about 6:20 most of the sky was getting brighter and increasing numbers of Martins were flying out first towards the west southwest into a light headwind!
then most were swinging off towards the north and fewer were returning to the roost. The rate of departure continued to increase then at almost exactly 6:30 the remaining birds took to the air in three massive eruptions in a little over a minute. For a couple of minutes the sky was filled with Purple Martins but by 6:35 the roost trees were silent and only a handful of Martins remained on the wires and those in the air in were dispersing rapidly.
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