By Terry Anne Suchma

[Related Article - Chicago Roosts]

If only we could protect the enroute habitats known as roosts for our martins!

If only they could become some kind of preserved green space for the birds.

Roosting areas are very important to migratory bird species. Typically, roosts and/or staging areas for large flocks of migratory birds are short-lived, but for the time that migrating birds spend there, they are life-sustaining habitat for them. Roosts are abundant with insects where the birds can spend time bulking up before they begin their many thousand-mile migration. This is why they can be called pre-migratory roosting areas.

For many roosts, the areas chosen by the birds has been a traditional area for many, many years, some for many decades, even centuries. In the center city of Chicago, for example, Purple Martins have been staging at Montrose Harbor for feeding and roosting nightly at Belmont Harbor for over fifty years. Both of these areas are along the Lake Michigan shoreline, and, during the 2000 season, the roost moved to the Lincoln Park Zoo--all this well within the hubbub of the large metropolitan City of Chicago.

While a few million people go about their business every day in the Windy City, Purple Martins and other migratory bird species also go about their daily business and congregate along the Lake Michigan Lakeshore where they have done so for years on end and their forebirds have done before

Roosts

What Will Become of Them?

Of the millions of people in the Chicago area, most have no clue to the natural phenomenon that cultivates and builds yearly in the big city. Only known to a miniscule number of birding and martin enthusiasts, the martins continue to do what they have been doing for decades oblivious to most, if not all the city residents. While the old timers tell us that the numbers of martins cannot measure up to the old days where there were, perhaps, a hundred thousand martins, there is still a semblance of roosting numbers to excite the local martin mavens.

Just like in Chicago, there are other venues across the Purple Martins' breeding range where they congregate in large numbers, feeding and bulking up for the long journey back to South America. And, the same thing! Many folks remain oblivious to the martins just as they are oblivious to other wildlife interests.

We are seeing a rekindling of a back to nature spirit for many in the last two decades. The birding interest, as a hobby, is today a $20,000.000 business a year. Yes, that is 20 billion dollars! Considering all the birdhouses, birdfeeders, optics, books, magazines and even ecotourism, birds bring a tidy profit to a proliferation of bird related companies. But, this interest is generalized and not specific to the Purple Martin interest.

And, while there is this insurgence of new interest in birds, butterflies and nature, in general, there are still hordes of others that do not know the simplest of bird species such as an American Robin. So, it does not take much to understand why the clueless general public does not understand the idea of a roosting area. Instead of looking at a roost as a wonderful, educational natural event, most people see only the negativity in them. They are noisy; they are dirty.

So, let's see what we can do to rid the area of this annoyance

A few years ago, a well-known rubber company, in Birmingham, AL, with the initials GY, had the pleasure, unbeknown to them, of hosting a large flock of Purple Martins on the grounds of the factory. Thinking that these birds that doo-dooed on the employees' cars in the lots were more black birds, the rubber company contracted a wildlife nuisance company to rid the property of the so-called black birds. In doing so, the wildlife nuisance company applied a product to the trees on the property that caused birds' feet to stick fast and tight to the substance. Death for these birds was horrible.

When it found out that they were not killing only starlings (Duh!), but also protected native species, including Purple Martins, the US Fish & Wildlife Service law enforcement division smacked them with a huge monetary fine and that educated them fast on the laws that protect fish native bird species.

Ignorance is not bliss.

Unfortunately, while we revel in the large numbers of martins, their aerial acrobatics and precise maneuverings into a large stand of deciduous trees for the nights, there are others who become irate over the incessant nighttime martin chatter, abundant droppings and possible health factors that could arise.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and these folks beheld no beauty in martins as we do.

As many martin wannabees know, you cannot make the martins go where you want them to go. Though we call them the most semi-domesticated wildbirds, we cannot coax them to change their instinctive itinerary.

Even if we were to protect the areas where the birds roost today, would they return there next season and the season after that? We have found that the birds in Chicago have had a few different places to roost in the few recent years we have been seriously observing them. For two seasons, they returned to Belmont Harbor, but last year, they were nowhere to be seen at Belmont. Like PM bloodhounds, we sniffed them all the way down Lake Shore Drive to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

We thought it appropriate that the birds should roost in the safe and secure habitat at the Zoo, but one morning this spring, we picked up our morning Tribune to read that the Lincoln Park Zoo was planning a renovation of the Great Ape House.

You guessed it!

That is where the great numbers of Purple Martins roosted at the Zoo. The Ape House is a subterranean exhibit with a beautiful stand of mature trees above it. We don't know the details yet.

Will they dismantle the entire old Ape House and build a new one; will they just renovate the old one?

We just don't know. We are worried about the local martin roost here. While we can tell you that the Zoo is the protector of endangered animal species of the world, we are not sure how the Zoo's people feel about Chicago's endangered Purple Martins. We don't think that they will factor martins into their renovation job. But, we will be checkin' with them and hopefully educate them more. There are just not a lot of roosting sites near the insect richness of the Lake Michigan in the big city .

In Louisville, TX, local authorities and folks there don't take much to bird droppings at a roost located behind a local post office. To complicate matter further, there are others who want to build another human edifice there. Last August, equipment was delivered and markers dotted the landscape. It looks like something ominous is imminent. Our hope is that the local authorities and the building concerns can be persuaded to have the patience to let nature and martins take their course. The Lewisville, TX Roost builds annually until mid-August, then the birds mosey away, little by little, on their great journey back to South America. It is an annual natural avian event.

How can we protect the roosts?

This is a difficult question.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) only provides one paragraph detailing the protection of birds. In this paragraph, birds, eggs nests, nestlings and pieces/arts of any of the above are protected by law. While the birds themselves enjoy protection of the law, the trees in which they perch are not protected unless it is during the breeding season and the birds are using the tree for nesting purposes. We canot protect the trees in which our birds perch while roosting.

Roosting and staging bird behavior is a little observed ritual to date, but if only people could take the time to enjoy nature and appreciate what they have before they loose it because when it's gone, it is gone! Many times forever.