Martin migration spectacular to behold in N.C.; locals get involved as innkeepers

During the summer, North Carolina has one of the most spectacular bird migrations. From mid-July into August, up to 100,000 purple martins swarm at dusk around the old U.S. 64 bridge over Croatan Sound between Manns Harbor and Manteo. Then they spend the night under the bridge. The birds are on their way to the Amazon River basin of South America.

Purple martins are a unique bird species, at least east of the Rockies. They rely on humans for housing to roost and raise their young. Each year, an estimated one million people in the U.S. put up multi-unit houses or gourds for this member of the swallow family.

This has been happening for a long time. American Indians erected martin gourds long before European settlers arrived. In the Pacific Northwest, martins have also started adapting to gourds and clusters of single-unit houses. But in Mexico and the Southwest, they still rely on abandoned woodpecker holes. Only chimney swifts rival martins in their adaptation to man-made housing.

The purple martin is the largest North American swallow, measuring about 7½ inches long. The male is a deep blue all over. Females and the young are blue on top but gray or dirty white underneath. Martins look similar to barn swallows, but they are bigger and have a shallower fork in their tail.

They are monogamous and share nest-building and feeding responsibilities. Females lay 2-7 eggs at the rate of one per day and then incubate the eggs for 15 days. Chicks fledge about 26 to 32 days after hatching and commonly continue to roost at the same site.

Connie and Wade Beauchamp of Lewisville have provided gourds for martins for 17 years. They now have 48 gourds on two poles in a sunny location at the back of their standard-sized lot. But the bird-friendly landscaping of the yard is anything but standard.

When I visited recently, I must have seen 15 different species at several bird feeders and baths and among the shrubs, coneflowers and other flora. There were woodpeckers, hummingbirds, bluebirds, catbirds, wrens and purple martins.

Wade said that they got the idea of attracting martins from his uncle Paul Beauchamp, who had a pole filled with gourds when he operated a driving range and a produce stand on Country Club Road. Connie said they had 18 martin pairs this year, which means that there probably were several dozen chicks. The first bird arrived on March 8, and the last left probably a week or so ago. The birds generally return to the same site year after year.

The Beauchamps are hard-working landlords. After the martins leave, the poles must be taken down and the gourds -- some natural and some plastic -- cleaned and repainted a shiny white.

They put out straw, pine needles and dry leaves for nesting material, and they save crushed egg shells to provide the birds with calcium. They also must be on guard to evict any starlings that try to take over the site.

Connie enjoys "watching the martins arrive in the spring and coming into roost in the evening, and listening to their gurgling calls even after they retire for the night."

But the martins don't keep the yard mosquito-free. It is a misconception that martins eat mosquitoes. They eat flying insects, including crop pests. But they feed high in the sky during the day when mosquitoes are close to the ground.

According to the Purple Martin Conservation Association, a failure of martins to return usually is because of the housing site and not storms or pesticide contamination elsewhere. The Association recommends that housing be in a sunny location, 30 to 120 feet away from buildings and 40 to 60 feet away from taller trees.

Connie recalled how a Cooper's Hawk perched in one nearby tree when it feasted on her martins two years ago. Fortunately, some survived and returned the next year. Owl guards offer some protection against raptors, but snakes also can be a problem. For more information about martin housing, visit www.purplemartin.org.

l Next Saturday, the Audubon Society takes its monthly bird walk to the Archie Elledge Water Treatment Plant to look for migrating shorebirds. Check in at the gate and get directions on where to meet. For more information, contact Gene Schepker at loissch@gmail.com.

Bird's-Eye View is a joint column by Ron Morris and Phil Dickinson. Today's column was written by Dickinson. Dickinson is a legal writer. He has been an active birder for 20 years, and is a past president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County and chairs the communications committee. Morris retired after 24 years as curator at the N.C. Zoo. He has studied birds around the world and is currently the president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County. If you have a birding question or story idea, write to Bird's-Eye View in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101-3159, or send an e-mail to birding


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