Subject: starling roost
Date: Oct 5 08:11:08 2000
From: Stan Kostka - lynnandstan at earthlink.net


As I was driving into Everett last night I noticed clouds of birds
forming up over downtown, apparently preparing to go to roost. I have
no experience estimating numbers of huge congregatons like this but if I
had to make a guess I would say ten to fifteen thousand, perhaps
more. The starlings were coming into the trees by the time I parked my
truck and walked to the scene. The limbs of the trees along the center
of Hewitt Avenue alternately sagged and rose as large groups of the
birds came to rest on them and then took again to wing. The sidewalks
were somewhat soiled and I took a direct hit on the shoulder before I
retreated under a storefront awning. I saw what was probably a
sharpie or coopers hawk as it flew away with a meal. The sound of the
roost was considerable even above the noise of the traffic. What I was
not expecting was the odor. It was quite noticeable on the downwind
side. I returned to the scene later that evening about ten oclock. They
were there, although it would be easy to miss them up in the darkness
above the lights as they were now much less noisy. I spotlighted them
as I looked through my binoculars. The branches were so covered with
birds in places it appeared as though they were sitting on top of each
other. It was an impressive phenomenon but I observed it with a sense
of loss. You see, I was in town this evening to give a presentation on
the limited recovery of purple martins that is occurring locally and
regionally as the result of nestbox installations. Had it not been for
the unfortunate human introduction of starlings into North America one
hundred and fifty years ago, premigratory congregations of purple
martins on this scale might still be observable here as they were in
the 1940?s. .

Stan Kostka Arlington