Tonight on the fishing boat come "Purple Martining" boat, the Bodacious, we sailed the 8.5 miles up the Maurice River from Bivalve upstream past Mauricetown and under the causeway bridge, as part of the annual Purple Martin Festival.
As the sun set, I did four 360 degree counts using a clicker, counting swallows (primarily martins) by 100's, with the following results:
7:55 p.m. 41000
8:02 p.m. 39,000
8:04 p.m. 49,000
8:08 p.m. 32,000
The counts included primarily martins but Tree Swallows, Eastern Kingbirds, and a few Barn Swallows were included. I wound up concluding 35,000 Purple Martins and 5,000 Tree Swallows were present. I'd put the confidence interval at plus or minus 20,000 total birds - it is just impossible to accurately count a swirling mass rising up and over and down over river and reeds. But damn fun.
The cruise also yielded 15-plus Ospreys and 3 adult Bald Eagles.
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