a Purple Martin 'dread'

The Purple Martin colony by the Town Dock (on the other side of our property) exploded into the air -- seemingly all at once -- early this morning as I was walking out into the marsh. If this were a tern colony, we would call it a 'dread'. My first thought was that there was a raptor in the vicinity but, if so, I never saw it. I don't think it's likely that my presence in the marsh (a good distance away) or the presence of other people in the area (there are people close by every day without seeming to disturb the colony) had anything to do with it. The birds continued to circle and cluster noisily above the colony for at least a quarter of an hour before they slowly began to drift apart and, for the most part, away. If this wasn't raptor response, what was it? Encouragement for the young to get out and up into the air? Some kind of sign of social solidarity? An early signal of impending departure (Purple Martins traditionally leave their breeding site in August)? This species is known to gather in numbers in places like the Pine Barrens (where I have seen them) before undertaking their huge migration to South America.

A while back, Mike Bottini wrote an interesting post asking whether Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have really increased in recent years or if this is just an artifact resulting from the vast increase of bird watchers taking notice. I don't doubt that nesting hummingbirds have increased in substantial numbers on Eastern Long Island and part of the reason is undoubtedly that there are far more flower gardens and more hummingbird feeders in these gardens. But changes in our bird populations are widespread and involve far more than hummingbirds. It's a fascinating subject with important implications (about climate warming for example) and I plan to take it up in more detail in a future post.

Eric Salzman