Nashville, Tennessee: every spring thousands of purple swallows or purple martins gather here but this year they will find a sad surprise in the city center. It was in fact chosen to cut down the trees to prevent birds from settling before migrating to warmer areas
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
In Nashville, Tennessee, the beginning of spring coincides with the arrival of thousands of flocks of purple martins or purple swallows, the largest in North America they have found in the city, and especially near the Schermerhorn concert hall. Symphony Center, a comfortable shelter.
However, if their arrival is awaited by many lovers of this swallow with joy, it is not so for the City Council and for the Schermerhorn Symphony Center which defines the management of purple martins is very complex, A real disaster", disclosing the skyrocketing costs of cleaning the building and adjacent street once the birds migrate to the Gulf of Mexico or equally warm regions.
About $ 7.000 was spent last year cleaning up the concert hall façade, sidewalks and pruning trees that look so attractive to purple swallows, so that's where they concentrate most, perching until the end of the day. hot summer months and breeding season.
As a solution to put an end to the problem, it was chosen to undertake a road that is neither animal rights nor sustainable because Nashville will now cut down its trees to prevent purple swallows from taking refuge here for years to come.
In fact, there are about 150.000 specimens that fly over the skies of the city every year, giving life to a unique spectacle of sounds and colors, although the plumage of these swallows is not purplish, as the name suggests, but of a splendid blue - black. Who knows what will happen now.
Did you know that up to 150,000 purple martins gather in Nashville area this time of the year? Flocks of purple martins swarm at dusk over the Walk of Fame Park in downtown Nashville creating an unforgettable cacophony of sound and vision. pic.twitter.com/rz3h9zZQ07
— Metro Parks (@MetroParksNash) September 3, 2020
In addition to the urban decor, there are fears for the missed receipts of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center which, already due to the pandemic, has suffered losses equal to 26 million dollars and which could now mesh with even greater difficulty if spectators were to decide to don't go there anymore, bothered by the purple martins.
It is difficult in these circumstances to hypothesize a peaceful coexistence.
Source: The New York Times
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