Purple Martin Houses Proposed for Tenney Park
Late last summer a number of Tenney-Lapham residents would go to Burr Jones Field to observe thousands of purple martins roosting.
Dave Fallows, a local birder, sent an email to several purple martin enthusiasts describing what he saw: "Again this year, especially July through early September, four to five thousand Purple Martins roosted each night in the Box Elders behind Burr-Jones Field. They were all in the box elders between the railroad bridge and that huge cottonwood. This is at least the fifth year I've seen them roosting there, so they are obviously finding something about the site -- the location, the insects, the box elders themselves -- to their liking. There may be others, but this is the only Martin roost I'm aware of in the Madison area."
Jim Sturm, a Tenney-Lapham resident, added his comments on what he saw: "Let me just add a superlative to Dave's description of the roost. It's awesome! About 2 hour before a midsummer sunset, purple martins begin to assemble on the power lines on Thornton Ave. as well as along Sherman between the beach and breakwater. Hundreds, then thousands can be counted. As the sun slowly descends, groups of 20 to 100 either lift off from the power lines or appear from elsewhere, swirl in holding patterns above the grove and a few at a time are released by some collective air traffic controller to dive into the canopy of box elders.
Occasionally, if there is a train in the area and it couples loudly, the birds will lift up from the trees and start a managed descent all over again. When most of the birds have joined the roost, a walk through the shaded trail along old railroad bed is a magical experience. It is dense, often humid and somewhat spooky as the chattering of thousands of unseen birds and a few small, flitting shadows join the twilight."
The purple martins at Burr Jones Field roost there in preparation for their fall migration after hatching and fledging their young at locations throughout the Madison area. Jim and another Tenney-Lapham resident, Bob Shaw, are organizing a committee this winter to develop plans for putting purple martin houses in Tenney Park as a neat tie-in to the activity at Burr Jones. They are looking for neighborhood residents who would like to get involved in planning for this. If you are interested, please call Jim at 255-6931 or Bob at 255-3486.
-Bob Shaw