When we arrived at Sandy Lake, southeast of Kent, Ohio, on July 20, fourteen purple martins occupied the houses at the edge of the lake, joined by an equal number of house sparrows. Yesterday morning (on July 25), the martins were gone.
After wintering in the Amazon River Basin of South America, purple martins arrive along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. as early as January; those that nest in northeast Ohio generally arrive here in early April. Nesting within six weeks, these long-distance migrants have fledged their young by early-mid summer and, by late summer, gather in massive roosts, primarily along the Gulf Coast.
Come September, most of the community roosts break up and the purple martins head back to Brazil. Some will travel through Mexico and Central America, others will island hop across the Caribbean and some will make a nonstop flight across the Gulf of Mexico, from the U.S. to the northern coast of South America.
