Last week I paid two visits to see the Purple Martins located at Highland Farms
Retirement Community in Swannanoa. Jim Poling provided the location, thanks
Jim. I was there about and hour for each visit and this was the first time I
had really gotten a good look at the behavior of this interesting birds. I am
guessing there were at least 50-75 individuals-- flying, singing, and feeding
their chicks at two multi-bird houses sitting next to each other. One of the
houses was the traditional gourd type consisting of approx. 15-20 gourds
hanging from cross ties on a post, and the other was the more modern metal
three story "high rise" structure consisting of maybe 30 "apartments". The
activity of the parents feeding the chicks was especially interesting. At the
gourds, it appeared that the parents could feed the chicks "on the fly", never
actually landing on the gourd and just delivering food while airborne. At
other times the parent would land on the gourd and feed more deliberately. I
did not see this happening at the high rise nests, perhaps because of a porch
was present around these nests, but it might have occurred there too. In
addition to the birds, I enjoyed chatting with a few of the residents of
Highland Farms who stopped to chat as they were on their morning walk. I was
able to get a few pretty good photos of the activity out of probably 200 tries.
Alan LenkAsheville
Attachment:
PurpleMartinMaleInFlight©.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
PurpleMartinMaleHFarms©.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
PurpleMartinChicks.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
PurpleMartinFeedingOneChick©.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
PurpleMartinFeedingChicksHFarms©.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
PurpleMartinOnBoard©.jpg
Description: JPEG image
