CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi is right in the middle of the Atlantic Flyway, so it's no wonder we're one of the Birdiest Cities in America.
And the Purple Martins that have been the talk of the town lately, won't be here forever.
"Purple Martins are a seasonal-only specialty here in South Texas and all of North America," said expert Louise Chambers. "They arrive back from their wintering grounds in Brazil about January, February, work hard to claim a nest, attract a mate by singing beautifully, and raise a family. Now, it's all wrapping up."
As the older birds head out first, the younger ones will still stick around the next few weeks into fall. But, of course, you know what they say about birds of a feather. . . .
"They're coming together to be safe, you know there's safety in numbers," said Texas State Aquarium CEO Jesse Gilbert. "So dawn and dusk, you're seeing them move together as a population, and they're big enough -- there's enough of them -- that they're showing up on radar."
Items in the atmosphere send signals to the radar tower, which let meteorologists know that something is out there.
But this led me to ask: Just how many birds are we talking about that the radar can detect the birds?
"It can be thousands of them at one time, moving back and forth, hunting," he said. "They're roosting you know. They breed in those big populations."
These large populations are not just seen in South Texas, but all over the world.
"When they leave the roost in the morning, there's a very distinctive donut shape from -- just about sunrise -- and then they disperse," she said. "You don't see as much of a roosting in the evening, but those morning donuts are very distinctive, and we're using them to help track and monitor Martin numbers all over North America."