Godless Mom in the Bible Belt

We have the most wonderful purple martin house in our backyard. I bought it off of eBay in February and we've had so much fun watching the martins come choose our house to raise their families.

Yesterday afternoon I noticed a small bird on the grass below the birdhouse. At first I thought it was a sparrow, but upon closer look I realized it was one of the baby martins. Under normal circumstances I would simply put the baby back into the nest and there would be no problems. Unfortunately there are twelve nests in my birdhouse and I didn't know which one my little guy called home.

Fortunately for me the pole on which the house sits telescopes, making access to the nest boxes quite simple. Liz and I pulled the house down and had a look-see in an attempt to figure out in which box the foundling belonged.

My goodness the work all of the martins have done to make the house cozy and secure for their little ones! Each nest box was lined with pine needles and twigs, held together with dollops of mud and lined with leaves. In one box there was a clutch of at least 10 eggs! Most of the other boxes had two or three nestlings but all of them much smaller than my little wayward dude. We finally found a box with two nestlings approximately the same size as our friend and figured he must have come from there. We placed him in the box, set the house back up on top of the pole and went inside to spy from the window.

Sure enough, within a minute the martins had all come back to check on their little ones. The pair that live in the box in question came back with their beaks full of bugs, fed the babies within and took off to do some more hunting. Apparently we found the right nest box!

I love being able to share this sort of experience with my little girl, her eyes get so bright with curiosity and pleasure, she almost vibrates with excitement!

If you live in an area that falls within the migratory path of the purple martin and have not already done so, I highly recommend putting up a house for these remarkable little birds. They provide hours of entertainment, eat TONS of bugs and have a beautiful, trilling song.