Cloudy With a Chance of Eclipse
There have been tons of things happening here in my world this past month, but none of them in Colorado so I apologize in advance.
At the beginning of the month I headed down to Austin, Texas to co-guide (with Jennifer Leigh-Warner & David Cook) a NANPA photography workshop to photograph Texas wild flowers and the eclipse. As most of you probably know the weather was pretty cloudy down south that day. But our fantastic group of workshop attendees had great attitudes and we set up to photograph the eclipse anyway. The clouds were uncooperative for most of the eclipse but the heavens opened up for us during totality and for that I and the workshop attendees were grateful!
Purple Martins Get Some Love
Going back to the end of March, a photography story about purple martins I worked on for many years in Austin, Texas was finally published in National Wildlife Federation Magazine. (If you are interested you can check that out HERE.) Funny thing about working on a photography project like that, you spend years shooting thousands of pictures and only a handful get published! I thought I’d share a few images and a video with you that haven’t been released to the public.
Purple Martins, for those not familiar, are the largest swallow in North America. The males are a dark irridescent blue color and the females have a little blue on top of their heads and backs but are mostly buff colored with dark wings. They are migratory songbirds birds and you will find them in the US in early spring and early summer before they head back to South America to overwinter.
Soaring Purple Martins
There are many stories about purple martins and their “landlords”, the people who watch over them and their nesting boxes, so I won’t bother re-telling that story here. Instead I’m going to talk about what fascinated me about these birds in the first place.
The most incredible thing about these birds is their pre-migratory behavior. After they’ve had their babies for the season, the new families prepare for the trip back to South America by gathering at what is called a “pre-migratory roost”. And holy cr@p they know how to gather, hundreds of thousands of these birds come together at a chosen location. In Austin they usually choose to roost in trees in a strip mall parking lot, to rest up for a few days before they migrate. They swirl into the roost just a bit before dusk, and their numbers escalate as the skies grow darker. The birds swirl through the sky like a tornado with feathers. The chirping from the birds turning into a high pitched whir. The spectacle is wonderously loud and kinetic! As they begin to settle into the trees to roost for the night they pack the branches full. You can get a good feel for the sheer amount of birds in the video at the bottom.
With all of this chaos in the air, injuries can be a problem for these birds and Travis Audubon volunteers cruise the post-migratory roost spot every morning looking for injured or dead birds. Injured birds are taken to the Austin Wildlife Rescue center while dead birds are taken to the Biodiversity Research & Teaching Collection at Texas A&M in College station where they are used for genetic research. These birds do not die in vain.
Mini Purple Martin Documentary
No words, just music and imagery of the birds and their loyal “landlords” at work.
Wrap Up
Since the article in NWF magazine has come out I’ve had multiple people reach out to me wanting to know where they can learn more and where they can buy the purple martin houses. For those of you interested in becoming a purple martin landlord I suggest checking out the Purple Martin Conservation Association (PMCA) website as a starting place.
A heartfelt thankyou to Andy & Julia Balinsky and Alex Moreland & Kevin O’Reilly for teaching me about what it means to be a purple martin landlord, letting me photograph them and their colonies of amazing purple martins!
Thank you Heather for helping to lead the wonderful workshop!