March 2, 2013: Karin Cundiff, Charlene Lanno and myself were assisting
Jimmy Fitzgerald in setting up his 64 Purple Martin gourds for occupancy. I
was brushing out the shed when Karin appeared and said there was one Purple
Martin flying around. We had almost finished attaching all the gourds to
the four stands.
Karin's grin was so wide that I thought they were pulling my leg, but the
bird moved on the second story of the Martin house so it was real. Jimmy
flew into the house and fried up egg whites which are cut into strips. He
sat near the gourds and the Martin house with the egg whites on a plate and
a utensil in his hand. When the bird poked her head out and she saw him, he
flipped some of the egg white into the air and the bird flew out and caught
it.
"She's a return bird, " Jimmy said grinning from ear to ear. This was a
female who had just completed a 5,000 mile trip. She was a bird who nested
at Jimmy's last year because she recognized Jimmy's way of feeding his
Martins on cold or rainy days.
Later, Charlene flipped egg white and the female bird took some of them.
Sue Ridd
Glen Allen, VA
