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2000
Purple Martin Roost Search
The Lure Of The Chase. Chasing Daylight And Purple Martins By
Terry Anne Suchma Well, for a few years, the PM hunters looked to Montrose Beach for PM staging and to Belmont Harbor as a roosting area for the PMs. This year proved to be different as well as exciting. Just like fearless hurricane hunters and tornado chasers, members of The Purple Martin Society doggedly chased martins along the Lake Michigan lakeshore. No easy task, considering a City of 4 million people and all. And, they all seemed to be present along the City and Lakeshore last night. This was our third foray into the City in the last two weeks. Our first visit two weeks ago (8/6), proved most uneventful with very few birds at the traditional feeding area at Montrose Harbor and no birds at recently found roosting area at Belmont Harbor. Last Tuesday (8/21) was almost another dismal visit to the City. Had it not been for the tenacious spirit of our member, Stuart Cleland, of Evanston, we would not have persevered and found the new roosting area for the martins--at least, new to us. After stopping off at Belmont Harbor to see martins coming in across the lakeshore from Montrose, we only saw small threads of martins proceeding on and past Belmont Harbor to some point, south of us. While some of us were overwhelmingly deflated with cruel disappointment after our arduous, and now, inconsequential trip into the City that night, one member thought differently. Stuart Cleland decided that he would continue on and chase daylight and the martins. Upon hearing this battle cry, we took to our fearless leader, and hastily follow him. Our first stop was several blocks north of Lincoln Park Zoo. We got out of our cars at the area of the Nature Museum and looked about. What caught our VP's attention was a black cloud of birds hovering over an area in the vicinity of the Lincoln Park Zoo. Burning rubber in the City is a definite “no-no” but that is what we did. We hurriedly got back into our martin mobiles and left in a cloud of burning rubber in the direction of the Lincoln Park Zoo. Within minutes, we arrived, at the Lincoln Park Zoo Farm on the northern side of the Zoo. With both hands cupped to his ears to listen more intently to the cacophonous sounds of the martins, Rick Cruz was off and on a personal mission to find the elusive City martins. The rest of us, preceded, one by one, in the reconnoitering excursion. We followed the audio sounds of the martins. Beating a fast hoof, we traversed the footbridge across the Lincoln Park lagoon, moving hurriedly east past the camel habitat and onto the newly constructed road adjacent to the main entrance opposite Lakeshore Drive. We were almost too late, but we were able to see about two minutes of the last remnant Purple Martins flying like bats into a cave, and descending into the trees in the area of what we think is the Great Ape House for the night roost. Afterwards, we spoke with a security guard, named Norman, riding about the Zoo grounds in a golf cart. We asked him to come closer to the fence between us, but he announced to us all, that he could hear us from where he was standing. I tried to inquire about the birds within and he shrugged his shoulders and said, "We have pelicans and all kinds of birds and animals in here, lady. This is a Zoo!" I tried to make my point about the importance of PMs inside the Zoo, but got nowhere. As Rick Cruz said, Norman probably thinks he is dealing with an out of control woman from the suburbs and that could have been misconstrued as a dangerous situation for a City security guard. As we turned around to depart, the guard would drive along side the fence and continue discussion about the situation with the birds inside the Zoo grounds. I think he really did see that we sincere in seeking information about the birds and had decided to help rather than impede our hunt for more information on the birds. We spoke with two female keepers there and the birds have been roosting there all summer. Some originally thought that they were bats or cicadas, but came to realize that they were birds. We tried to impart upon these two keepers the significance of this historic martin roost and that these birds were more than a roost of blackbirds. They were Purple Martins! We found the two keepers to be of some help to us about what the Zoo thought about the martins residing there, night after night, this summer, and for all we know, many summers in the past. We returned again last night. It was a real experience driving in from the suburbs to the City of Chicago. While Tuesday's trip into the city took only about thirty minutes, this trip took nearly one and a half hours, most of which was bumper to bumper on the Stevenson Expy and all along Lake Shore Drive. I honestly thought that we would not make it in time to see the birds. We did arrive an hour past the time we had intended on meeting up with our PM Scout in the City, Bill Beach. We arrived at about 7:00 and nothing was happening. There wasn't even one PM in the sky above us. Was Tuesday’s sightings merely been a fluke? Had we made a mistake? Was Tuesday only a tease for us? Was it all just a dream? We only had to wait about fifteen minutes for some Purple Martin action. We were seeing martins coming in from the north and from the lake areas. And, if there is any one thing we have learned over the years of chasing and observing roosting martins in the City is that you do not forget while conversing with your martin confreres is “do not take your eyes off the birds.” They can be gone in a moment’s lapse of attentiveness. For fifteen minutes, the numbers built. It was totally exciting to those of us there. It was amazing! Above us, there were, literally, thousands of Purple Martins--a huge smoke screen of birds. All the birds swirling, like a bubbling cauldron. . And, everyone along the lakeshore was oblivious to this wonderful, interesting and natural phenomenon with the exception of a few bikers, who, in passing us, would look up to see upon that which a bunch of birders were focusing their binoculars. But, even these barely-curious folks remained non-plussed at this huge staging of martins in the air. . And, everyone along the lakeshore was oblivious to this wonderful, interesting and natural phenomenon. After about twenty minutes of the martins sweeping the local air space around the Zoo and the lakeshore of flying insects, the mood and demeanor of the birds changed. It was becoming apparent that they were now concentrating their numbers into a more compact cloud. This cloud continued to grow until the cloud was a controlled number of Purple Martins now behavior-driven to get into one small, insignificant stand of trees in the Zoo. It was immensely exciting to see the birds change their typical feeding flying pattern and develop into a concentrated and focussed avian swarm. Had we not known that they were our backyard martins, we would have thought that this concentrated mist was a swarm of bees or locusts. It is amazing that the birds all know what they are doing. How in all this furious flight, there are no birds rear-ending other birds or hitting into each other. All birds apparently understand their own personal flying space even in the fury of all of this. And, just for comic relief in this intense martin life drama, several flocks of starlings, each numbering about one hundred birds, would indefatigability fly, in formation, through the purple curtain. You can always tell the starlings in such a situation. While, in such situations, the martins fly as an helter-skelter flock of birds, the European Starlings fly as an organized and tight formation. Though terribly outnumbered by martins, the starlings remained undaunted and with great resolution continued to maneuver their position in the same area of this metropolitan zoo. Then, as if on one martin’s churbling command, they all move both rapidly and rabidly by the hundreds into the trees below at breakneck speeds. But, not all of them get the initial opportunity to dive into the nighttime bird beds below. While churning in the upper airspace, many more groups of martins wait their turn. It will take about six, or seven, complete waves of thousands of birds to find their nighttime roosting branches below. All in all, it took about 10-15 minutes for the entire avian exhibition to unfold. But what excitement it was for the lucky group of PMS members! While some of us have seen this before up at Belmont Harbor where we actually saw the birds come in like bullets and dive right into the trees, this was different! We witnessed them swarming over the local area for 15-20 minutes, then saw many, many individual birds, come together in unison and constructing a unique natural and intricate framework of a billowing cloud of birds. And in unison, they rapidly descend, and in a blink of an eye, disappear into the tumultuous clamor of the trees below. What is more amazing that these birds never bump or touch each other, is that they can stop or even find a branch at this great accelerated speed of descent. And, in a few minutes, it is completely over. All birds are in place in their roost for the night. The recognizable churbling sounds of Purple Martins are still ringing in our ears. Thousands of martin voices, announcing their arrival in the trees while discussing the bird events of the day, no doubt! And, as
we leave, we notice an all-familiar smell to Purple Martin
landlords wafting around us. . A smell lost upon everyone
but a PM landlord. The smell of the martin house permeates.
The smell of martin feathers abounds about us. For us, it
is the sweet smell of our birds, now safe and secure, in
of all places on this leg of their migratory trip of thousands
of miles, in a zoo. Of all places! A zoo! How appropriate! By Rick Cruz As the middle of August approaches the PMS staff looks forward to its annual farewell to the martins. For the past 3 years, this farewell always takes place at Montrose and Belmont harbor on the north end of Chicago’s lakefront. This area has been used as a staging area and roost for longer then anyone remembers. But for some strange reason this August the martins decided to play cat and mouse. Our first
trip down to Montrose on 8/6 resulted in more Barn swallows
then anything. There were a few hundred purple martins gathering
on a Chinese elm as evening started. Just like all the years
before. We decided to race on down to Belmont harbor only
a mile or two south. Traditionally all the martins will leave
Montrose just before dark to roost in a dense clump of Red
Maples at Belmont harbor. When we arrived we were surprised
to find the martins happily flying past their roosting trees.
Needless to say we were a bit perplexed. After all this is
where they are year after year. A few large limbs were spewed
about do to a nasty storm that went through only a few hours
before we arrived. We assumed that this was the reason they
didn’t land. But none of them even made an attempt
to even look at this roost as they flew by. We decided to
come back 2 weeks later hoping to see greater numbers of
martins thinking they will be roosting at Belmont like usual. Behind the locked gates of the Zoo, the waterfall drone of shifting martins was barely audible over the drone of traffic on Lakeshore drive only a ¼ of a mile to the east. Struggling to get a better view PMS founder and Executive Director Terry Suchma, had an interesting conversation with a security guard, that was completely oblivious to the noise and spectacle that was only yards from his head. He seemed a bit perplexed and had to keep reminding Terry that this was “A ZOO, LADY” The guard’s announce with such strange suburbanites can only be described as something out of a movie. This alone made the trip worth wile. Knowing where they now were, we planed to return later in the week just to see how many martins actually decided to spend the night in one of the countries oldest and most visited zoos. Thursday 8/23 the same crew endured a BRUTAL drive to the North side of Chicago once again. One trip into Chicago a week is enough for me but Ed Suchma braved a road trip that only an army ant could appreciate. Once inside the parking lot to the now closed zoo, PMS member Bill Beach was waiting to observe the nightly spectacle. All of us armed with cameras and camcorders eagerly waited. At first nothing appeared in the sky but the Ringbill gulls heading due east to roost on the many breakwaters that run parallel to Chicago’s lakefront. Then in a blink of an eye a few martins appeared, not many, just a few. With the appearance of these few more began to arrive. They all came from the Northeast right off Lake Michigan. Then the spectacle began. More and more began to arrive. Their numbers began to increase to the point that the eastward gulls had to perform evasive maneuvers just to continue in the same direction. By this time the martins seemed as nothing more then a huge swarm of large insects. They grouped together in mid flight in an uncountable number. In this group they circled lower and lower attempting to drop into the trees below This continued for a while till some unperceived signal was given, and martins began to drop from the sky like bullets. This pattern was repeated about 5 times and the bulk of the swarm was in for the night. A few groups of birds made passes in the dark to get in after the bulk of them were away. 20 minutes after it began it was all over. Only the faint drone of a waterfall like noise could be heard. Such a spectacle went completely unnoticed by the bike riders and joggers that frequent the area. The only ones to notice did so in response to us looking straight up like feeding giraffes. The Lincoln Park Zoo closes at 5pm on the weekdays, 7 PM weekends. I decide to take a trip down one more time Saturday 8/25 simply to find the exact spot that this swam decided to roost in. PMS member Dave Morelli joined me. The Chicago Park district does a great job of providing a world classes zoo free to the public. Unknown to them they also provide a secure place for several thousand roosting Purple Martins. On the eastern side of the Zoo just south of the east entrance, resides the Lester Fisher Great Ape House. Built into the side of a hill, this enclosure is actually under ground. Around the front and top of its entrance is a dense group of trees. Several small Green Ash make up the bulk of the trees on the top of this enclosure. On the East Side of the entrance is a rather thick Red Maple. A planter in the middle has a 20-foot Honey Locust and 30-footer is located next to this one a few yards on the West Side of the entrance. I know this is a bit hard to believe but this enormous amount of birds seems to roost in these 3 trees. It was only under these trees that discernible amounts of fecal material could be found. It was enough to stain the lower Green Ashes leaves, and the front end of a cement retaining wall that juts up to the glass entrance door to the ape house. The Locust tree in the planter had a stained trunk as well as the large stone carving below it. The Red Maple at the East Side had a stained trunk along with the large granite stones surrounding its base. For the few hours that I waited in the zoo and in front of the ape house no one seemed to notice any of the droppings. As far as I was concerned it did not seem like much considering the amount of birds that roost there. As closing time approached the zoo thinned out till it seemed we were the only ones left? Two security guards came to lock the house up at 6:30. I talked with the younger of the two and the only thing he could tell me was that when he is making his rounds and passes these trees, the birds quiet down only if he makes some noise. He didn’t know how long they have been there or if this was an annual event. He didn’t even know they were birds till I told him. Till then he assumed they were bats. As 7 PM approached Dave and I were eagerly waiting to see some martins above the trees. I remember them showing up around this time on Thursday. But they were nowhere to be found. Then, just over our heads out of the thick Green Ash trees, a Coopers hawk raced towards the roof of the Old Primate house to our left. It dived out of sight only to be replaced by a whirling flock of pigeon’s flush from the ground just where this bird disappeared. It was then that we knew, why the martins were late. At 7pm we were practically forced out by security, Dave was more eager to fight the establishment then me. I told him we would get a better view from the parking lot anyway. Once there were where still waiting for the martins to show. At 10 minutes after the hour they should have gathered by now. There were a few but they appeared to be heading North towards Belmont harbor. As we were watching a woman inquired if we were watching for Purple Martins. She had heard that they were down in the Zoo and she and her husband came down to see. We as luck would have it turned out to be PMS member and Master Bander Terry Carter. The Four of us were beginning to get a bit nervous. Could they all have left since Thursday? Then I saw the Coopers hawk once more. He was flying only an inch or two above the long peaked roof of the Old Primate house. In a flash he had a 90-degree turn down to his left and disappeared. As before a host of pigeons took wing. Just moments after this incident, like a flash of lightning hordes of martins began to appear. This time they were coming from North and south. As I watched I could see that most of them were so high they were out of sight, only coming into view as they dropped to a more viewable level. There was a sense of urgency to their grouping. It was past 7:30 and beginning to grow dark. Once again, just like Thursday before, thousands of martins appeared. They came in-groups of hundreds. Quietly announcing their presence. Regardless of what they are like when they are nesting, all these martins are relatively quiet. It is not as loud and boisterous, as we know them. They seem to use a different sort of call, one or two notes at the most. Of course only one needs to sound the alarm and the whole swarm is up in the air. As 8 PM approached the martins made a mad dash to the trees. This time they did it from a higher altitude then before and their approach reminded me of Canada geese dropping to a small pond, the quick drop required them to waver and weave till they hit the trees. The sun was just about down and it was just almost too dark to see when the last group of around 200 dropped from the sky to the safety of their roost. What a spectacle to behold and a fitting end to the martin season. I had the privilege of seeing the first birds arrive in Florida in January. I saw the first male arrive at the local colony; I held their first egg, and newly hatched young. I banded over 500 hundred of them at several ages from several colonies. I can’t help but think some of those are roosting among the thousands a zoo in the city. What a fitting end to the best martin season Chicago has seen in ten years. I feel blessed to have had a small part in the life cycle of such an incredible creature. # # #
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