Murmuration of Tree Swallows

Murmuration…usually defined thusly....“A murmuration occurs when many thousands of starlings flock together in preparation to land and settle for the night.”

Yesterday afternoon, though,  I learned that tree swallows also gather like this thanks to a chance encounter with an employee of Hillsborough County. After enjoying the company of a fellow birder, her dog and a friend at my home, I drove with another friend to a reserve about six miles away, because someone had posted on eBird on Sunday that they had seen a painted bunting and a horned grebe there.   It's been my dream to see and photograph a male painted bunting, and the grebe would be an added bonus, as I've never seen one of those either.  Well, we didn't see either of those birds, but there were hundreds upon hundreds of waterfowl…coots, white ibis, roseate spoonbills, great egrets, hooded mergansers, ring-billed ducks…all in the ponds along the roadway.  Tree sparrows by the dozens were darting along the water and flying over us.  There were several red-winged blackbirds, mockingbirds, gulls, mourning doves and a couple of osprey…I was in seventh heaven! But, the best was yet to come.

We drove to the bay, turned around and headed back, driving slowly, always looking for birds in the trees.  I noticed a car parked on the side of the road with four people standing nearby.  They were all holding binoculars…obviously, birders. I stopped to chat and they asked if I could ID some of the birds they weren't familiar with, which I did. Then I mentioned my reason for being there…the painted bunting. The response I received was "Oh, you can see those at Felts Audubon in Palmetto. They are at the feeders every day, along with the indigo bunting." That's much closer than Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary , so guess where I'll be going soon. Then, one of them asked if I had seen the fork-tailed flycatcher. That led to directions on where to see it, a short drive from where we were, so off we went.  We made a wrong turn, though, and wound up at another preserve, where we met the employee of Hillsborough County, who was just about to close and lock the gate. I mentioned what I was trying to find and he said that the flycatcher had left for the day, but that I could probably see it tomorrow.  He then suggested that I have a look at the lake on the other side of the buildings next to the parking area, so while my friend went off to use the ladies room, I walked over to see the lake and I'm glad I did.

Wow! There were lesser scaup, some shorebirds that I didn't recognize and way on the other side, hundreds of red-headed ducks! Turns out this was a former pit mine that the county is in the process of turning into a preserve. In just six weeks, all kinds of waterfowl have been seen using it, including a few avocets and black-necked stilts...they know a good thing when they see it. Ah, but then he mentioned the tree swallows....

For the past five days, he has been seeing at least a million or more tree swallows gathering in one area at sunset, flying higher and higher and then swooping down like a tornado, winding up in the cattails along a large pond to roost for the night. He said it was called "murmuration."  Would we be interested in seeing this, something people rarely see? Of course! We followed him to a parking spot about a mile away, which was opposite from where the swallows roosted. He told us where to look and then he went off to get closer so he could take a movie of the event. Behind us, on the telephone wires were dozens of common grackles, cackling away.  There was also an osprey nest on the pole and I wondered if the cackling disturbed the ospreys who could be seen on the nest.

Looking through the binoculars, we were able to see the swallows as they gathered for the evening, with more and more coming in from every direction. What a phenomenal sight! It's impossible to describe what it was like to see that many birds in one area...a huge swarm of birds. We were mesmerized by the sight of them as they flew higher and higher…thousands and thousands of birds, which looked like little black dots in our binoculars, spread out over a large area.  The sun was quickly fading from view and then gradually, slowly, the swallows swooped down into the trees to roost and before we knew it, the sky was cleared of birds, just as the sun faded from sight. It was all over in a few minutes and had we not known where to look or when, we would never have seen it, because looking over the body of water at the marsh on the other side, all we heard was the cackling of the grackles, which had also gone there to roost for the night.  The sky was cleared of birds, with no trace of the thousands that had been filling the sky just a minute before.  I can only imagine what it would be like to see those trees up close…every inch of them would have to be covered with birds! We witnessed a rarity seen by very few people…what a thrill it was!  How I wish I could have taken pictures of the event but it will forever be recorded in my memory.

A murmuration of tree swallows...and all because of a wrong turn and a chance encounter with a fellow birder, who was kind enough to set up his scope for us to look at red-headed ducks, which I've never seen before, who lent a pair of binoculars to my friend (who is not a birder, but is fast becoming interested in birding) and then led us to where we could watch the murmuration and he also showed us where the flycatcher had been seen.

Now how in the world would I record such an eventful afternoon with eBird?

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012

We went back this afternoon to see if we could find the fork-tailed flycatcher, but it was nowhere in sight.  Then we went back to where we had watched the tree swallows, and our friend from the preserve joined us.  Sure enough, as the sun was setting, the birds gathered, and this time there were even more of them, as they were now flying above us as well as over the marsh and the trees where they would roost for the night.  This time I was able to take some pictures because the clouds were not dark the way they were last night, so I was able to focus on some of the birds, although in some of the pictures, there were so many black dots, that it's difficult to make out the shape of birds.  Because of the better viewing conditions tonight, after they all flew higher and higher, we were able to make out swarms of them as they descended into the trees.  They resembled tornadoes as they formed, swaying this way and that, until they reached the safety of the trees.  One black "tornado" after the other could be seen, as swarm after swarm with hundreds of birds descended  into the trees and then by 6:25 p.m., it was all over.  Another awesome sight!  Tomorrow,  a professional photographer from Saratoga is going to be there to take pictures of the event.  Here's one of my pictures.....