150000 birds (purple Martins) stop in Nashville - symphony was prevented from chasing them off

[Demovictory9]

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CEfrnK0BMwn/?igshid=rgygk0ym4lzz

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/opinion/a-150000-bird-orchestra-in-the-sky.html

NASHVILLE — At first they circle high in the evening sky. But as night descends, they, too, begin to descend, bird by bird, one at a time, and then all in a rush: 150,000 purple martins swirling together, each bird calling to the others in the failing light as they sweep past the tops of buildings in the heart of downtown Nashville. To anyone watching from the ground, they look like one great airborne beast, one unmistakable, singular mind.

Their music grows louder and louder as the circles tighten and the birds swing lower and lower, settling in the branches of sidewalk trees, or swerving to take off again as new waves of birds dip down. They circle the building and return. They lift off, circle, reverse, settle, lift off again. Again and again and again, until finally it is dark. Their chittering voices fall silent. Their rustling wings fall still.

It is not like Hitchcock: Watching these birds is nothing at all like watching crows and sea gulls and sparrows attack the characters in “The Birds,” Alfred Hitchcock’s classic horror film. The purple martins that have been gathering here the past few weeks are merely doing what purple martins always do this time of year: flocking together to fatten up on insects before making the long flight to South America, where they will spend the winter.

That’s not to say the birds aren’t causing problems. The place where they have chosen to roost this time is Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which was already having a terrible year. With all scheduled programming canceled or postponed by the pandemic and so much of the symphony budget based on ticket sales, the organization had no choice but to furlough all the musicians and most of the staff and hope for better days. What the Nashville Symphony got instead was a plaza full of bird droppings and elm trees so burdened by the weight of 150,000 birds alighting in them night after night that whole limbs are now bent and hanging limp.



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The unsightly and unsanitary droppings are why the symphony decided to hire a pest control company. Besides the droppings on the sidewalks and the sides of the symphony hall, the trees are in pretty rough shape too, with their limbs drooping under the weight of these tiny travelers.

But bird biologists like Melinda Welton of the Tennessee Ornithological Society were already out on the plaza Tuesday night when the truck pulled up, ready to fog out the flock.

“We actually were lucky to have been here,” she says.

Welton and her husband called all the wildlife agencies they could reach after hours. And the symphony stood down.

https://wpln.org/post/the-nashville-symphony-nearly-ran-off-rare-purple-martin-roost-but-the-birds-are-still-pooping-everywhere/

[Dem2theMax]

1. To the Nashville Symphony, I say, leave the birds alone.

If anyone ever got an idea to make music, it came from hearing a bird sing.

What's a bit of bird poop to see nature in all of her glory?

[North Shore Chicago]

4. "it came from hearing a bird sing"

Good post.

[SheltieLover]

7. +1,000!

Absolutely!

[Hekate]

2. Great article at link. Everyone's cooperating to take care of both the birds and the symphony bldg

Purple martins, a threatened native bird, mix in with starlings, which are an invasive pest — so until the wildlife conservationists and birders got involved, all the people running the symphony house knew was that their beautiful limestone building was getting covered in bird poop and the branches of surrounding trees were bending under the weight of all those birds.

Now many humans in Nashville and beyond are cooperating to raise money to help the Orchestra pay for the pressure-hosing once the birds move on in their winter migration.

Happy ending.

[North Shore Chicago]

3. Leave the birds alone.

We are fortunate to see nature doing what nature does. Stop the human interference (when possible.)

[Submariner]

5. Enjoy the flights of these flocks while they last

It’s likely your kids/grandkids will never see it happen as our species marches on destroying species and their habitats.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

6. Yep, population twice what it was 50 years ago

And no sign of stopping. 200,000 new people born every day... 60% of animal species already eradicated...
Human overpopulation is the overarching problem that no one wants to address.