08/13/2026
The people who put up martin houses have always talked about their birds the way other people talk about family. The old bird lists agree. A gathering of purple martins is called a richness.
August is when you understand the name. The families are done nesting now, and they gather each evening into roosts that grow by the thousands, then the tens of thousands. The biggest ones swirl up off their trees at dawn in rings so vast that weather radar picks them up. Meteorologists call them roost rings and know better than to call them rain.
And then one morning soon, the house by the garden stands quiet. They are over the Gulf, bound for Brazil, and the yard is poorer until April.
If there is a martin house in your neighborhood, look tonight. The richness is counting down. đď¸
