Bird in hand, Darracott’s colony of Purple Martins
Bird in hand, Darracott’s colony of Purple Martins
by Mike Tripp / The News Leader
Mixon Darracott mows his grass in Fishersville, Va.
It’s not every day that one’s life is changed by the simple act of mowing a lawn.
But what Mixon Darracott saw streaming behind him as he drove his mower across the wide yard of his new home in Fishersville in 2000 changed everything.
“I’m riding along on the lawn mower, and all these birds are coming from behind me, right by my head,” he described. “I wondered what in the world was going on.”
Friends surmised the mowing churned up insects, which the birds —guessed at the time to be purple martins —considered a joyful smorgasbord.
A cluster of nesting gourds hanging on a support pole is silhouetted against the afternoon sky within the purple martin colony. Mixon Darracott has observed that purple martins like to be close to human activity as he feels this helps protect them from predators. Martins don’t build nests in trees — they are cavity dwellers, often nesting in cavities, such as holes in houses adjacent to wide open spaces, where they hunt as high as 200 feet for insects including dragonflies. (
It was enough to inflame Mixon’s curiosity — a curiosity outliving the fact those original birds were most likely barn swallows.
Heading out for a nest check, Mixon Darracott smiles as he looks to his purple martin colony.
“Ahhh, I became very interested,” he said with a smile. “I knew I was gonna have a garden so I thought, ‘Hey, it really would be nice to have them (purple martins) around to eat the bugs.’”
Of course, he also thought in those first days these birds would feast upon his mosquitoes.
“Which also was not true,” he explained. “Martins really like to eat dragonflies which are up about 100 to 200 feet above ground level. That’s their delicacy.”
By the time he realized that purple martins were not going to feast on the mosquitoes in his yard, though, “I had already decided I wanted to try to have a colony of them.”
Mixon Darracott retrieves a fledgeling purple marlin from the nesting gourd long enough to clean it out. “The mother parents don’t mind you handling the babies,” he observes while cleaning a nest. “I know there’s an old wives’ tale that says don’t handle the babies but martins don’t mind this at all. So you change the nest and put them back in the nest and everybody’s happy.”
Three dozen nesting sites, 30 of which have nestlings or eggs in them, and a total of 104 eggs at last count, probably constitutes a colony.
But it took years to grow and develop.
Martins are the largest of the swallows native to North America, and tend to nest in cavities in man-made structures with open air around them, as opposed to trees. They don’t mind human activity nearby and take advantage of the natural protection that being in proximity to people provides.
Mixon Darracott places a 15-16 day old fledgeling on fresh wood shavings in a bucket while he cleans out the nesting gourd it calls home. “When they get up to about 14 days of age, it’s a nice thing to take the nestlings out of the nest,” he explained. “I put ‘em in a plastic pail with shavings in the bottom of the pail and change the nest. We landlords like to do this because we have seen other insects get into the nest, and they will kill the nestlings.”
Hand-over-hand, Mixon Darracott lowers a set of gourd houses within his purple martin colony as he performs a nest check.
They have preferences for housing with specific entrance sizes. It took Darracott several years to find the right houses and living conditions to entice the first purple martin to his yard. But once he got it right, he knew he’d have their company from March to late August every year.
“And it’s been a glorious ride, something to look forward to every spring,” he noted. “You can’t wait to hear that very definite sound of a martin chirp.”
If all eggs hatch and all nestlings fledge, 128 new purple martins will be preparing to leave Darracott Colony late this summer on their way to Brazil, where the aerobatic world travelers will winter
But for now Mixon Darracott checks his nests every few days during the day, and enjoys most summer evenings in admiration of the stylish flight and social chatter of his swift-winged neighbors.
“One can go to a zoo and see animals and birds brought into captivity for our enjoyment,” he said. “But in my opinion, that is not nearly as good as enjoying them in their natural environment day-after-day, watching and being awed by their natural behavior.”
Purple martins share the perch on top a post supporting a cluster of the nesting gourds within the colony. Although they winter in Brazil, these birds arrive in the Shenandoah Valley each spring. “They have arrived at my place on the 16th of March for the last two years,” says Mixon Darracott. “And if they father offspring this year, they will try to return to this exact spot next year.” Mixon Darracott uses flashlight and pointer stick to peer inside one of the nesting gourds. After verifying no competitor birds are trying to take over the nest site, he counts the number of eggs and hatchlings within. “When you start seeing eggs, you do want to do nest checks more frequently because you would like to know when the last egg was laid. The female lays one egg a day,” Mixon said. He also states the female continues to lay an egg a day until done, normally between 4 to 7 eggs total. Three eggs are nestled among the green leaves within a purple martin nest inside one of the colony’s nesting gourds. “They like to put green leaves (in their nest),” observes Mixon Darracott. “We always put some other material in as a bed to start the nest. I use cedar shavings. And then they will begin to bring in certain pieces of straw, but the tell-tale characteristic of a martin nest is green leaves.” Mixon Darracott tracks the numbers of eggs, hatchlings and their progress in a notebook. Each nesting gourd and location is monitored and a note is made when new eggs are found, how many there are and how many eventually hatch. “One nest has 9 eggs, a record for me!” he reports. “Martins usually lay 4 to 6 eggs.” The cracked remains of a shell is situated in the nest between to young purple martin hatchlings. “If you want to predict when these eggs are gonna hatch, you need to know when the last egg was laid,” Mixon Darracott explained. “And then, you know the eggs will begin to hatch in 15 days.” Mixon Darracott opens up one of the compartments of one of his original purple martin nesting boxes — one experience led him to modify to better suit the needs of the martins while keeping out more invasive bird species. “Sometimes years go by before you ever do enough right things to attract martins,” observed Darracott. “A lot of us make a lot of mistakes before we get to that point.” An adult male purple martin has wings extended as he swoops in to perch over the colony. These birds are aerobatic as they prefer eating only bugs captured in in flight. “Martins really like to eat dragonflies which are up about 100 to 200 feet above ground level,” notes Mixon Darracott. “That’s their delicacy.” A window offers Mixon Darracott a picture-perfect view of the purple martin colony he maintains. “My wife will sit with me out some evenings, and we’ll have a glass of wine and just watch the birds,” says Mixon. “She likes them — but I have to do the work.” Caroline Darracott walks past her husband’s purple martin colony as she performs garden work outside. “I was very enthusiastic for him, but I have to admit that when he talks about a new pole…” she says, smiling. “Each time he talks about a new pole, I do roll my eyes a little bit.” She also admits happily to enjoying watching the birds in the evenings about as much as her husband. Purple martins share the perch on top a post supporting a cluster of the nesting gourds within the colony. Although they winter in Brazil, these birds arrive in the Shenandoah Valley each spring. “They have arrived at my place on the 16th of March for the last two years,” says Mixon Darracott. “And if they father offspring this year, they will try to return to this exact spot next year. … I find all this extremely fascinating.”
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