purple martins Archives • Into the Light Adventures

What a Conundrum Amidst , trickery I tell you. Well, I have been watching these two birds for a couple of weeks now. Thinking they were purple martins, but because of a fellow blogger who commented on my last update about these birds, I have been tricked by these little Tree Swallows. He mentioned that they looked like Tree Swallows, so I started to investigate and by golly they are.

They fly like a purple martin and they have pointy wings like one. Their blueish, purplish sheen made me think they were purple martins. But you can see the difference below in the two birds. Now they both eat lots of bugs and are fun to watch fly. But, Purple Martins live in colonies and Tree Swallows like to be alone, just the one pair.

Purple Martin Tree Swallow

And the Tree Swallows like to have the whole house to them selves and will chase off any other birds. I noticed this week, that the female was picking up nesting material and putting it in every apartment in this house. I thought to my self, ” How nice of her to furnish the other apartments for other birds, or she was just confused which one she wanted”.

Well, I have read about how to discourage them from taking up resident here, I will be lowering the house and taking their nest out so that maybe they go find a tree to nest in. Being they are called Tree Swallows. 🙂

At the end of the day, I learned about a new bird I have never seen before and a rainbow came out in the evening as I sat on my porch watching nature in my back yard. Have a great weekend.

What a Conundrum Amidst

by Sandra J

Purple Martin Update Part 2

By Sandra | May 21, 2021

Purple Martin Update Part 2, last week we put up the Purple Martin House and the same day we had two visitors stop by to check out the new apartments. Both of which are males, the males have the purple sheen to their feathers.

I was so surprised to see visitors the first day. They are so much fun to watch, very acrobatic at times. Now they only came around in the morning and would sit on top of the house. Then fly around the fields, appearing to just be checking everything out and they would leave in the afternoon.

Now this week, another Purple Martin has arrived. My husband and I are making up stories as we watch what these birds are doing. We figured they were starting to like the apartment complex and decided to invite the mother in law to check it out. But after viewing the photos, I see all three are males, which are probably scouts and young males at that. They usually have to leave a colony and start a new one elsewhere.

Everyday they stay a little longer. Watching what we are doing as well. They are used to my dogs and they really do like having us around. They have figured out that people keep predators away, just by being out and about.

Now there is fun news for next week. We put up another bird apartment house, to try and have ample room for a colony to eventually live here. But the exciting news, today a female has arrived, with her mate and I believe she likes the place.

Have a Wonderful Weekend

Purple Martin Update Part 2

by Sandra J