When the Swallows Return to.."fill in the blank"

I consider it a banner day, a day with an extra shot of joy, when I see my first swallow of the season cutting through the air with that graceful swoop and dive they are all so adept at. With my New England roots, I don’t expect this recipe for happiness to arrive until April or May, but I am not in New England any more. So imagine my surprise when on Feb 18th I was treated to the arrival of the first Purple Martins at the nature center I am now volunteering at. Yippee, Martins, the largest of all swallows!

This was followed the next day by a sudden appearance of a large flock of swallows
(hmm guessing, Rough Winged swallows but it was too gray a day to be sure) swooping in and out of a bridge overpass. In TX then, it is already swallow time.

The Martins arrived on cue, just as we were showing a group of 4th graders the gourds that hang in a circle, a kind of Condo for the martins when they return. Just as we were explaining how they would be coming up soon from Brazil, (now that Carnival is over,) in zoomed a pair, circling around us and then popping into the gourd to see what had changed over the year. Amazing! We could never have staged such a thing! The kids loved it!

Now on the Cape I wasn’t near anyone with a Martin house, so mostly my joy came from watching the Tree swallows, lying on my back floating in the pond while they swooped in for some tasty bugs. However I have been reading up on Martins and are they ever fascinating. First of all, now wild is this? All the Martins east of the Rockies, which is clearly a good chunk of real estate, will only nest in man-made Martin houses. You have probably seen one, maybe you even have on. A small condo of houses, sometimes built as one unit, apartment like, or by providing separate housing by hanging several gourds in a circle.


Back in the day, maybe hundreds, possibly even a thousand years ago, they nested in old woodpecker holes but for reasons we can only guess at, the Indians began providing gourds for them to nest in. Now a lot of people are under the impression that Martins eat a lot of mosquitoes like the other swallows and therefore it would have been easier than spraying some prehistoric Off around. But the truth is they fly really high when seeking their food and mosquitoes lay low, so never the twain shall meet. Damselflies, dragonflies and a zillion other insects are on their menu, but not mosquitoes.

Stokes has a book devoted solely to raising Martins and he theorizes that because a colony of Martins aren’t shy about mobbing larger birds of prey or vultures, that the Indians may have appreciated their help in keeping scavengers away from their drying hides and meats. Whatever the reason, the habit continued with the settlers and with bird enthusiasts today, so why knock a good thing? The official term is “behavioral pattern shifting” when a species switches to a whole new way of doing business. I just find that amazing. West of the Rockies, where I take it no ancestral people were tending to their housing needs, they still nest in old woodpecker holes like a normal bird!

The ones we saw that day, may linger, or continue north. They have often been mistakenly referred to as scouts but that would imply that they were checking out the route and going back to say they have made reservations, come on down. Not the case. These are the adult birds that are heading back to be the first to get the prime real estate. The subadults come straggling along anywhere from 2-8 weeks later. Now, here is something else interesting, last years young will NOT return to their birth sight, but will look for someplace new. Neither will the ones in their second year, they are staking out greener pastures too. However, by the third year, they head back to their native site and will stay true to that for the rest of their years. Interesting yes? The thought is that this will keep the group from inbreeding and make for a healthier flock. And because all those 1st and 2nd year Martins are looking to relocate, you, the kind person putting up a Martin home, if you situate it correctly will probably get some takers. There are entire books on the subject of exactly how to position such a house and what it means to be a Martin landlord if you are interested.

Depending upon where you are geographically then, you may be anticipating the arrival of your swallows soon, or perhaps you have a few months to go. The Capistrano swallows, which are Cliff Swallows have a whole festival fashioned around their return. They arrive at the mission of San Juan on the feast day of St Joseph March 19th and leave on Oct 23rd the Feast of San Juan. Good Catholic birds it would seem! Again, nature never ceases to amaze.

There is more that could be said about Martin behavior, a fascinating subject too, but we all have our limits to how much we want to hear on a particular subject and I imagine you have reached yours. Till later then… enjoy that world around you that is new every morning.