Saving the Purple Martins

I visited Galveston during the passage of Tropical Storm Bill on June 16, 2015.

Wind speeds were in the 25–40 mph range, with steady, heavy rain. These were not severe tropical storm conditions, but they were strong enough to make it unpleasant to be out in the elements.

As I was about to depart to return to Houston, the winds blew over one of our four purple martin houses. The 3/4-inch steel pipe simply buckled at a junction point.

Five recently hatched purple martin babies lived in that house.

I put on my rain gear and rounded up the five baby birds, placing them in a cooler with a secure top to keep them warm while I considered what to do about their smashed home.

This was our oldest martin house, and much of the wood had become a little too soft to try to nail back together.

With a few stainless steel nails where the wood would hold together—and a lot of Gorilla tape—I managed to rebuild the martin house to a reasonably usable form.

After getting the house back into shape, I returned as much of the nesting material as possible to the separate apartments where the martins lived.

I then used a 1/4-inch line to secure the house to a nearby palm tree against the continuing high winds. Without that line, the house would surely have quickly collapsed again.

Using a ladder, I put each of the five baby martins into one of the nests. The martin parents quickly returned to check on their babies. There may have been some confusion about whether each baby was in its original apartment, but they seemed to sort it out quickly.

Returning to Galveston a few days later, I found the martin house thriving.

Shortly after arriving, I noticed that a baby martin thought he could fly but could not get up from the grass after departing the nest.

I captured the baby martin with Turner’s help and made sure the young bird was safe.