Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, orders started rolling in – to replace, rebuild, and repair damaged housing in the stricken areas of the Gulf States. Bird housing, that is.
In the wake of the hurricane, citizens of the Gulf Coast region set about providing housing in what would amount to the largest rebuilding effort in US history. That rebuilding involved housing for people and for animals. Of all the orders received by the Purple Martin Store for new Purple martin housing, and for repair and replacement parts orders it received since early September, nearly 75% have come from the Gulf States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
The Purple Martin Store’s sturdy aluminum bird houses were designed to last for many years in normal conditions. But the hurricane unleashed conditions that were far from normal.
“At first, we called some customers to verify orders for parts like sub-floors and winter door stops – parts already included with most of the house models,” said Jim McCarthy, the store owner. “We found out early on that they were replacing not only whole units of 8 – 24 nest compartments, but also parts that had blown away in the surviving houses.”
Just one week before Katrina, one customer in Mississippi closed on wooded acreage intended to be wildlife refuge. Hurricane Katrina stripped her property of all but three deciduous trees, on which just the crowns survived. She not only ordered replacement parts for her damaged houses, but also planned additional units and a complete replacement of the destroyed wildlife habitat.
Larger members of the swallow family, purple martins winter in South America but return to the US and Canada each year. They usually arrive in the Gulf States as early as January.
Bird landlords, such as McCarthy and his customers, maintain housing both out of their affection for the returning birds, and perhaps their dislike for the 2,000 mosquitoes and other insects each bird can eat daily. More social than most birds, martins prefer to nest in close proximity to one another, and not too far from humans. They only eat food in flight and even drink and bathe on the wing. They are rarely seen on the ground, except to get mud for their sturdy nests.
On its website, www.purplemartinstore.com, the Kansas company lists not only housing, but also devices for protection from the martin’s predators, and publications for new “landlords.” It recommends subscription to a monthly periodical, “Nature Society News,” published in Illinois for the birds’ more serious followers. On its website, the store accepts subscription payments as a non-profit courtesy to the Nature Society.
“I’d like to think I have only the highest motives in what I do to support the martins,” McCarthy says, “but I must confess there’s no better way to live right on a Kansas lake, like I do, and rarely see a mosquito all summer.”
