Saying good-bye to the purple martins

 I love the variety of birds that come to our home!

Bluejays

Red-bellied woodpeckers

Orioles - Baltimore male, female and male orchard oriole

Red-winged blackbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, female and male

Great egret and great blue heron

And of course, the ever present Canada geese.

Here they are on parade.

Interesting "birds" eating the birds' food.

We are so blessed to live in this neighborhood where all these birds (and many more) show up!  One of our favorite birds are the purple martins!  Sixteen years ago, when we moved here, our neighbor had a purple mountain house and he convinced us to put one up too and increase the colony.  We got us a house and we have been hooked since!

Each year we follow purple martin sightings on-line.  And I keep my eye open to the skies.  As soon as I saw the scouts, Allen put up our purple martin house.  This was in early March.

The scouts quickly found the house and were ready to settled in.  I found an interesting article about the scouts:  

https://gadnr.org/out-my-backdoor-scouts-are-here

It wasn't long before the rest of the colony arrived. 

Spring was here.  The trees began to bud.

But we also had a random snowfall.

Wonder if these birds were cold?

We enjoy these birds March through August.

Al has to be a good landlord, kicking out the sparrows that do not belong.  He has to monitor it continually, cleaning out the sparrow's nests.  They can find another place, but the purple martins need this apartment as they depend on us.

Look at these babies!!

I've seen a few hawks around.  Here is a purple martin chasing a Mississippi Kite.

Every August, usually between the 7th and 12th, our purple martins begin meeting up with other colonies of purple martins in Wichita and roost there at night.  During the day, they fly back to our home and then back to Wichita for the next night.  And then one day, they all are gone, flying across the Gulf to Brazil.

This year, we were gone visiting children/grandchildren during that time.  We were sure we would just miss out on the migration.  But, they were still around!  In fact, there were a couple of babies who had not left the nest yet.  The adult birds and other grown babies would go to Wichita, but come back during the day, encouraging the babies to try to fly.  They would swoop around and around the house.  "Come on!  Try it!  We don't want to leave you behind!"

I was so happy to be privileged to see those babies take their first flight!!  Hurray!  Hope they would be strong enough to make the journey!  Hoped they would miss Hurricane Ida!  Surely God gives them innate knowledge about the weather?

We went to Wichita to find the roost.  They change location each year and we call around to see if anyone has seen where.  This year, they were close to the airport.

Good-bye, purple martins!  See you next year!!  I was so glad the babies weren't left behind.

One day, the Lord will call us Home.  Are you ready?  Don't be left behind!  

(See Matthew 24.)