The Punctual and Playful Purple Martin
Pre-COVID times, my family and I would vacation annually in Corolla, one of the northern most seaside towns in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Elaborate, three-story mansions act as surrogate homes for traveling families who ache for a salty, languid retreat amidst a fast-paced, technologically pressurized world. Among these houses, there were a few that sat along the beach which, in particular, displayed similarly elaborate upright structures constructed of white “gourds” arranged on spokes laterally around a central hub. Flitting in and out of the circular doorways, their liquid song spilling into the ocean air, Purple Martins would greet our crew as we shuffled to the beach. Collectively, we found them charming and soon they became a welcomed symbol of our time together in the Outer Banks. Imagine my surprise several years later when I’d find myself at Pleasant Run, face-to-face with some of the most well-designed Purple Martin houses I’d ever seen - and right here in New Jersey!
