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November 2010

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Subject:
From:
Paul Gardner <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Paul Gardner <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:07:06 -0800
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Killing time on Thanksgiving morning, I followed Bill's link (see below) to look at the radar images of the morning departure of purple martins from their roosts. The first image, from August 2, 2010, shows a well-defined annular departure from a point a bit west of where Fairfield, Licking, and Perry Counties meet. Since the roosts are said to be near water, I'm guessing the roost is near Buckeye Lake. 

Peterjohn doesn't mention a roost in this part of the state, but Milton Troutman in his 1940 study "The Birds of Buckeye Lake" mentioned seeing as many as a 1000 during the peak of migration in late August. He reported birds roosting in dead trees and "various amusement structures in Buckeye Lake Park such as 'loop the loop' and 'circle swing'".

Does anyone know if this roost still exists and how big it might be? It would be interesting to have some confirmation that the radar is indeed tracking martins. I don't know much about radar, but the size of those rings suggests more than a thousand targets.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Paul

Paul Gardner
Columbus, OH


--- On Wed, 11/24/10, Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [Ohio-birds] Some indoor birding during the coming storm
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 4:10 PM

>        With
> heavy rain on the way, it might be fun to look at some
> neat  sites
> on the Web inside. Here, for example, are recent radar
> scans of Ohio
> said to represent huge night roosts of purple martins
> dispersing in the
> morning:  http://www.erh.noaa.gov/iln/research/birds/  Be
> sure to check
> out the articles cited at the end. Do we really have that
> many giant
> martin roosts? There's a big one on S. Bass Island, but it
> doesn't even
> show up here. [snip]
>        

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