An interesting story in today’s Bee about the adaptability of birds as we find purple martins living under an underpass, sharing space with illegal campers.
Here is an excerpt.
Carlos Alcala:
Purple martins nest under bridge that some people call home
By Carlos Alcalá -- Bee Columnist Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, May 4, 2006
Birds and broken bottles: About 20,000 cars a day zip over the bridge that takes El Camino Avenue from North Sacramento over the railroad tracks and on toward the Capital City Freeway. It may be that everyone in those 20,000 cars and trucks is unaware of an interesting natural phenomenon going on a few feet below their tires. Purple martins, rare enough in the West to be considered a species of special interest, are nesting in the underside of this bridge. They didn't used to. Dan Kopp was a student when he discovered them here while volunteering to help wildlife biologist Dan Airola with an ongoing survey of the birds. Airola is a one-time biologist for the U.S. Forest Service in the Lassen National Forest. While there, he kept his eyes open for the birds and then was stunned when he moved to Sacramento and found them nesting under freeways in midtown. "That's what really intrigued me," Airola said. So he started studying the urban bird. He and Kopp have found, happily, that they seem to not only be surviving, but expanding to new underpasses. Unlike most birds their size, they are good at the aerial maneuvers required to zip into the small space on the undersides of bridges. Now, like spotted owls need old growth, they seem to thrive on concrete housing in proximity to cars and trains. "It isn't just pristine habitats that are important," Airola said. In fact, it's downright trashy under El Camino, with old mattresses, toilets and detritus from illegal campers, who also like living under bridges, out of the rain. "What's one of the indicators of purple martin habitat?" Airola asked, rhetorically. "It's homeless people." ...
