Exciting news for bird-lovers

To the editor:

My name is Joe Zorn. I live in Schriever, La., about 25 miles from the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans. I am an oilfield safety instructor at a local safety school in Houma, La.

A few weeks ago I had a student (from the Mat-Su Valley) in a safety class that I teach who told me he had a purple martin birdhouse in his backyard with an active nest with babies. Those birds are migratory birds that fly into central Brazil in the winter (for us) and return in February here in Louisiana. It’s late May by the time they get to their extreme northern sites in North America.

PMs have never been seen or documented there in the Wasilla area. For that matter, the farthest north they have been seen is in Juneau, 600 or so miles south of your area.

I cannot make contact with the man I met from there. He seems to be out of pocket, and I don’t wish to make his name public here against his wishes. He may well still be in my area for training before he goes back home. He said he was to be here until mid-August.

My purpose here is to see if I can make contact with any other Wasilla area residents who have purple martin housing and witness them nesting in your area. The houses built for PMs are multiple-room structures. Usually a room is about 6 inches by 6 inches or a bit larger. Most homemade wooden houses have eight to 12 holes in them.

The birds are very friendly to humans and will perch above people working in their gardens, cutting grass, chopping wood or playing with kids in the yard below. They will “dive bomb” small animals and even children who get near their poles, but never, ever, make physical contact. When near humans they will chatter constantly, much like a parakeet or parrot would do.

If you have a PM house or know someone who does, please contact me, Joe Zorn, Schriever, La., mudbug00@gmail.com, (985) 855-7776.

From the conversation that I had with the guy, I am convinced that he really does have them and/or knows them well. I’ve been a purple martin “landlord” for nearly 40 years. He described their plumage, size, nesting, flight, perching and courting habits perfectly.

This would be quite newsworthy information. Your local Audubon Society has made contact with me through a mutual friend and is trying to find out the location of the nest I heard about so that it can document it before the last birds leave your area in mid-August — which is right now. Such proof would rewrite what the Audubon Society, state and national wildlife and other birding organizations know about purple martins.

Joe Zorn

Schriever, La.