Dallas ,Tx Roost Location

[Kenny Crawford]

Hello Everyone,
Here are the directions to the Dallas Roost Located at The Intersection of Royal Ln & Preston Rd .

Dallas Roost 8/02/08
Location : Royal Ln & Preston Rd @ Preston Royal Shopping Ctr
Directions:I- 35 to Royal Lane, East on Royal ln to Preston
Right onto Preston, left into Preston Royal shopping center.

The martins are roosting in the trees in front of these Businesses
Borders book store,Fish City Grill , Pier One Imports,
also down the alley behind the businesses martins are roosting on
the power Lines behind Fish City Grill (address 1012 on back door)
It's a funny site to see a couple of Great Horned Owl Decoys mounted
On the Fence of a home owner just below where the Martins are Roosting
On The Power Lines, I guess the home owner thought it would deter the
Martins from Roosting there, The Presence of the Owls don't Bother
The Martins at all.The Martins completely Ignore the decoys and go
about their business. Hope to see you there at thre dallas roost soon.
Your Martin Friend and PR Chair for The PMLNT,
Kenny Crawford

[Robert Mohler]

We hope with the soon to come 2009 roost we do not have a third year of terrible harrasment to the Purple Martins by using Rejex-it fog to burn and sting the eyes of our beloved migrating Martins. At most, they would roost a week or two before migrating. Please leave them alone! To all concerned citizens, please help! :mad:

This is an article written by Josh Hixson last year. We believe in our hearts that this fogging and the product Rejex-it being used has killed the Purple Martins. A large number of landlords this year are reporting eggs that are not hatching and some with deformed hatchlings. Below is the article from 2008.

Preston Oaks Battles Purple Martin Birds
Shopping center uses fogging agents to deter animals
By Josh Hixson
Staff Writer


Staff photos: Chelcey Adami
A sampling of purple martins found dead at the Preston Oaks Shopping Center. Bird advocates say TruTech’s spraying of the repellent Rejex-it on trees at the corner of Preston and Royal roads killed the animals.
A sizable flock of purple martin birds have come home to roost in an unwelcoming spot in Preston Hollow.

An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 migratory birds are roosting in live oak trees in the Preston Oaks Shopping Center, at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane.

They are considered a nuisance by the strip mall’s management, and in turn there’s been a backlash from area bird enthusiasts who claim a fogging agent designed to keep the birds from massing in the shopping center is killing the federally protected species.

“Every single tenant at our property demanded that we do something to remove the birds,” said Jeff Allen, a spokesman for Trademark Property Management Company. “Who wants to go eat at a restaurant or shop at a shopping center and come out with 60 bird poops on their car?”

This is the second consecutive year the purple martins have come to Preston Oaks, Allen said. After last year’s pest control company was unsuccessful, Allen’s group hired Georgia-based TruTech Inc. TruTech began spraying Rejex-it, a bird repellent which uses methyl anthranilate as an irritant, three to four times a week in early August. The naturally occcurring pesticide is slightly toxic to fish, and direct contact with skin or clothing should be avoided by humans and domestic animals, according to its product label.

A spokesperson for TruTech was unavailable for immediate comment regarding their pest control methods.

Purple martins are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. They often rely on people to provide predator-free homes where they can reproduce before their annual migration. Their partial domestication started with Native Americans who provided hollowed-out gourds to attract the birds to their villages, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Members of the Purple Martin Landlords of North Texas said they became concerned for the birds’ welfare when they noticed an annual Lewisville roosting spot was empty this year. The group used dopplar radar to search for the missing martins and eventually tracked them to Preston Oaks.
What they saw at the shopping center left a sour taste in their mouth.

“The residue (from the fogging) was inflaming our eyes and nose. If I had this kind of reaction, and I didn’t get sprayed directly, what kind of reaction are the purple martins having?” said Troy Galloway, a Dallas resident and Purple Martin Landlord, who witnessed TruTech’s spraying and the dead birds that followed.

Galloway said he found at least six dead birds in the parking lot immediately following one spraying and six more the morning after.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sent game wardens to investigate. The case was eventually transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because of the birds’ federally protected status.


Purple martins use the trees on the southeast corner of the Preston Oaks Shopping Center, at the Preston-Royal intersection, as a stopping point on their migratory path down south.
“We don’t feel comfortable telling the company to stop because of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” said Tom Karabanoff, supervisory special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We don’t get the impression they are trying to hide something.”

Penalties for violating the act include up to a $15,000 fine and six months of jail time or a combination of the two.

While officials said a few dead birds are commonplace with a population of that size, at least one dead bird found at Preston Oaks has been sent to a necroposy lab to determine whether the pesticide played any part in the bird’s death.

Even if the spray isn’t killing the birds, there are more effective methods to prevent them from roosting, according to Cliff Shackelford, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s non-game ornithologist.

“What they’re doing with the fogging doesn’t sound like it’s working,” Shackelford said. “There are a lot of unkowns because this stuff is so new. To me it seems like the wrong direction to go in to spray these birds at night when they are already in roosts ... I wouldn’t want to breathe it, and I wouldn’t want it sprayed on my kids.”

E-mail josh.hixson@peoplenewspapers.com