Bless Our Nest...and their's too!

Location, Location, Location...

Soon after moving to South Louisiana my husband started talking about becoming a landlord, well a landlord for Purple Martins, that is! I can't say that I opposed the idea because I love birds, hearing them in the mornings on my porch with my coffee and watching them on the bird feeder. We are fortunate to have many species of birds at our house, from the very small hummingbirds to larger species such as the Great Blue Heron that visits our property in the mornings to fish in our pond. 

But the Purple Martin is a very unique bird, they rely almost exclusively on human-provided housing. And like some of those aggravating folks who line up even before the plane arrives at Southwest Airlines, the purple martins migrate early because of the competition for housing. The earlier the bird arrives the greater the chance of getting the location they find desirable. And late January to early February is when the older birds show up in Louisiana to scout for the top housing. Our neighbor across the pond had already put his condo up for rent, so we had to get our waterfront condo ready for occupancy too!  But this year, in addition to our martin condo, JT had to prepare the gourd houses I purchased for him as his Valentine's gift.

Here are some pics...

15 ft pole and 6 gourd houses

Preparing the site

Quickcrete for the pole

Fresh pine needles in the gourd houses

Going up...

Look at the view, they are lucky birds!

We have already had a few scouts checking out the housing, can't wait to be landlords! Too bad we can't collect the rent, but having the birds pick our housing is priceless to my husband...:)

I hope to post pics of our tenants soon!!

Gratefully,

Deborah...xo!