Evening Walk to Purple Martin Colony

Lying on the gently rolling, grass-covered slope just north of Lake Arnold at Blandy Experimental Farm, Shenandoah Audubon hosts the Purple Martin Colony Project to provide suitable nesting habitat and to educate the public about Purple Martins. This nesting colony site is home to North America’s largest swallow, the Purple Martin (Progne subis), generally referred to by birders as “PUMA” (the Institute for Bird Population's alpha code). Being neotropical migratory birds, cavity-nesting Martins return each spring to this location around mid-April from South America to build their nests and raise their young. The older Martins are first to return to their previous nesting sites, followed several weeks later by individuals that hatched the year before and are making their first trip back.