2/27/2024 0 Comments T 14 purple martin house plans![]() “Overall the general problem is a declining population, 25% to 30% decline over 50 years,” says Joe Siegrist, president and CEO of the PMCA. He soon learned that the species faces a number of conservation woes far beyond the shores of Lake Murray. To help finance his budding career as a filmmaker, Steinhauser earned his United States Coast Guard captain’s license and began leading Purple Martin ecotours to Bomb Island in 2018. For a few weeks in midsummer, hundreds of thousands of martins gather every night. “This is part of what forms the bond.” Bomb Island on Lake Murray in central South Carolina hosts the largest known Purple Martin roost on the East Coast. “I think that people who put up these structures, they are also paying close attention to what’s going on,” Bailey says, noting that martin landlords in NestWatch track data on when the birds arrive in spring, how many eggs hatch, and how many chicks fledge. “Purple Martin landlord culture is unique,” says Robyn Bailey, project leader for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch program. The PMCA calls these people Purple Martin landlords, and they really love their martins. The Purple Martin Conservation Association, based in Pennsylvania, estimates that more than 150,000 active martin colonies across North America are managed by people who maintain artificial nest sites. Steinhauser is far from alone in his obsession with the little midnight-blue jet-fighter birds that streak through the air like daredevils and roost communally in extended families. “I found the perfect story and it was right in my backyard,” he says. But he admits he didn’t think much about Bomb Island until he was a young adult obsessed with wildlife. He first discovered the Bomb Island martin roost as a 5-year-old boy in 1998, while on a family excursion. The overarching theme from each conversation: “Buy a camera and find local stories,” he says with a slight chuckle.Īnd so he did. Those dreams changed a bit after he contacted established filmmakers for tips on how to break into the profession. “I always had dreams of becoming a wildlife filmmaker and game ranger in Africa,” he says, wearing his trademark green button-down shirt and backward-facing ball cap. While he carries many titles-boat captain, naturalist, photographer, master gardener-Steinhauser at age 30 has long fancied himself primarily as a filmmaker specializing in natural history. Purple Martin is the one species that has enthralled him for years. “How awesome was that?” Steinhauser asked after the excitement concluded. These massive takeoffs from martin roosting sites are so huge that they can be detected on weather radar. “To the right! To the right!! Here they come!” shouted Steinhauser over the cacophony of bird calls and wing flutters as another, even larger martin flock swooped directly parallel to the boat in synchrony. Birds skimmed the water no more than an arm’s length from the boat others scooped downward catching insects. But there was nothing sinister about this aerial spectacle of martin masses it was equal parts awe and action. Contemporary accounts have compared the clouds of Purple Martins around Bomb Island to the ominous flocks in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, or the apocalyptic skies in Netflix’s Stranger Things. Taking off in unison, the tiny black flickers of each individual bird transformed into a monolith above. ![]() On this late-summer morning, what began as a few birds flying overhead soon multiplied into the tens of thousands. Here the rather loquacious little birds can socialize, rest, and feed on the area’s plentiful insects before they embark on the next leg of their 3,000-mile migration to South America. Bomb Island is one of the largest roosting sites for the species anywhere, and by far the largest on the East Coast of the United States. Every year since (except for 2014, when they mysteriously deserted the island in favor of one 25 miles away), hundreds of thousands of martins have been roosting at this spot in the middle of South Carolina for a few short weeks from July through mid-August. ![]() North America’s largest swallow, Purple Martins first arrived on the island in 1988. Today the island is used by another acrobatic flyer that’s the reason for our early-morning sojourn: Purple Martins. The 12-acre island-covered in shrubs, trees, and some shortleaf pine along its western shore-was used for practice runs by B-25 bombers during World War II. “We’re at the tail end of the season, but they’re still there,” he says as we embark on a quick ride to Bomb Island. The sky is blanketed by thick clouds, imparting a rather unseasonable monochromatic look to the popular recreational area. On a quiet August morning Captain Zach Steinhauser unties his Bennington tritoon boat from a dock on Lake Murray, a 50,000-acre reservoir about 15 miles from Columbia, South Carolina. From the Spring 2023 issue of Living Bird magazine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |