Observed -- or heard -- more of these strange flocks or flights in the days since my last post. Here's what I know:
1. Did not see them until March of this year.
2. The flocks or flights may be low at treetop level but are usually high, so high that the birds will be heard but not readily seen. This morning I was out at sunrise and twice heard but didn't see them.
3. They have been observed above my place flying pretty much due east. Never saw any flying back west at the end of the day or at any other time. Could this be part of a vast migration? I've been assuming the birds were resident.
4. The time is right before the sun comes up or very shortly after.
5. While the usual flight is a wave of birds extending north-south, last week I saw a north to south roiling wave heading east and then 10 minutes later, a roiling wave west to east in the eastward direction of flight.
6. The birds are small, dark and loud. Their individual flight is erratic and darting within the wave, and this causes that roiling appearance. They are spaced out some but are a definite flock or wave. Sounds like swallows, huh. Could they be Purple Martins? I didn't know we had Purple Martins at Lubbock.
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