Wait, what? Nashville?
Last year I heard that the purple martins in this part of the country gather in Nashville to prepare for their fall migration. The video clips were amazing. The amount of birds, staggering. I talked all year about going down...and then didn't go.
I hate to disappoint myself. I had really wanted to go...but it's hard to leave the farm, especially in a hot summer. It's easy to talk myself out of taking trips. Maybe next year.
We were working on Saturday morning, normal farm chores and helping load up fence posts for a friend. I stopped to get some lunch and, of course, picked up my phone to see what was happening on Instagram.
Sheep, painting, knitting, cats, rabbits, squirrels, wool...and a post by Margaret Renkl.
"They'll be on their way soon. If you're anywhere near Middle Tennessee, you don't want to miss this. This sight will get you through whatever hardships the next year brings."
Summer is hard for me, especially the heat of this past (I hope it's passed) summer. I've spent almost an hour trying to think of anything besides these birds that I like about summer and have come up with nothing.
Sure, flowers are beautiful, fresh tomatoes are sweet, butterflies and bees, the bats, but I'd trade all that to not have to try to make it through the rest of it. The martins moving in is a good day. The quiet when they fly out is deafening.
I found Tim and asked if he'd like to go to Nashville for the day, the rest of the day.
20 is always up for a road trip. Pip, too :-).
Nashville on a Saturday night was not for the faint of heart and if we hadn't driven four hours to get there, I'd have probably said some grown up words, given up and hightailed it back north. Tim handled everything like he always does, but I'm sure he wasn't having a great time either.
We found where we needed to set up at dusk, gave up trying to find someplace to eat downtown and headed to the outskirts and had a good dinner, found our way back downtown (holy $%&#).
I had been quiet panicking to myself that we were a day too late and they would have moved on. The tips online had been to get there by the 22nd (it was now the 23rd) around 7:30. It was 7:15 and we didn't see any birds.
And then there were four. And a group of six. And some flying into some small trees along a sidewalk.
And then there were birds everywhere!
The trees got heavier and heavier as thousands of purple martins settled in for the night. And this is about all the people who were there to watch. There were thousands of people two blocks away and they missed the best show they'd see all year.
These two videos are short. The next video was while I was filming "live".
Some answers from questions from that IG post:
Yes, I believe they gather here every year.
No, it doesn't seem like enough trees. They were all bent low by the time everyone found a place.
They gather here each August. If you follow @birdsafenashville or @nashvilleurbanbird they apparently post the details each summer and give best dates to see them.
Do not go on Friday or Saturday if you can help it. Watch for downtown events like football games...and avoid those as well.
We did not get pooped on, but the truck got a couple hits. It wasn't bad and I even walked up under the trees near the end.
Even Tim enjoyed seeing them, but would probably have rather stayed the night than pull back into the farm at nearly 1:00 a.m.
It was absolutely worth the drive.
.jpg)
5 comments:
Wow thanks for the video!! I am so glad you went!
What an awesome person Tim is to do that with you. I am like you and have a hard time with the heat and we live in a northern state. It was so warm even for us and the high humidity. Looking to live further north if this is what summer will be like.
Wow! I never heard of this before - how lucky that you could witness this!
How amazing! Beautiful photos, and thank you so much for sharing the video as well. So many birds! How delightful! Warm greetings from a retired lady living in Montreal, Canada.
That was so beautiful it made me cry! Our birds and other wild life are such an amazing gift to us. Thank you so much. It's something I would never ever get to see, unless this way!
Post a Comment