Two Is Enough: Motel repair

Return to “Housing is for the birds”

By Vic Midyett

About the middle of June, I found that one of my metal purple martin motels had been damaged by strong winds. It was one of two that I obtained from an old lady now deceased. I am guessing that both motels are well over 40 years old, and each has bits missing. The one that was damaged seemed to have been constructed of second-hand aluminum. Its bottom floor had slipped down the pole about 3 feet. I got my tall stepladder and tools to fix it back up.
    When Shirley and I reached the motel, we found that a baby purple martin – its skin pink and wrinkled, with no feathers growing out yet – had fallen to the ground and looked rather worse for wear. But it was still alive.
    After repairing the motel, I picked the baby up and gently placed it back in the nest I believed it had fallen from – in a room on the far left side of the top floor, which you can see in the photograph. I did not hold much hope for the baby bird’s survival, but it needed to be given the chance.
    I’ve heard that parents will abandon babies after they have been handled by human hands. Apparently this is not necessarily so, because the next morning I noticed that a parent was taking food into the motel, and it has continued to do so. I was reduced to tears as I informed Shirley of this. Life is good, isn’t it?

Copyright © 2020 by Vic Midyett & Shirley Deane/Midyett