“It’s spectacular when you see 600 birds flying and swooping in the sky, and then going into the houses.”
Peter Huszcz.
NSC hosts about 700 boats in the summer, but it welcomes almost as many purple martins, the largest bird of the swallow family in North America. This is thanks to the efforts of Peter Huszcz, a.k.a. “The Purple Martin Man”.
The late Andrew Verheyden built the first purple martin houses on the NSC property many years ago. Following that, Peter built the first Purple Martin “condos” about 20 years ago, which have gone through several renovations and rebuilds since then. The current houses contain 96 units, each unit providing a home for a pair of adults and their four or so offspring.
The Martins return from their southern migration in mid-April. Shortly after Canada Day, Peter and a team of researchers begin banding the legs of the 2-4-week-old hatchlings each year to track and study them scientifically. With a lifespan of around six years, many birds return, and Peter recognizes them by their plumage and markings. He estimates that he has banded between 3,500 and 4,000 birds.
The banding sessions take place in cooperation with the Innis Point Bird Observatory, whose members keep logs and answer questions from the public. During these sessions, visitors can see the birds in their nests, and watch how they are processed. They can even touch, hold, and interact with the chicks.
Check out this Ottawa Citizen story, from July 2021.
Text and photos by Stephen Kidd