My First Eggs

My first eggs appeared today. Well, not my eggs, but the eggs the purple martins are laying in the nests of the colony I’m tending this summer. Though to be honest I do feel some small sense of ownership if only in my visiting the colony every few days for the past almost two months, so far mostly clearing sparrow nest detritus from the purple martin “gourds” (man-made plastic containers that vaguely resemble the actual dried gourds put up originally by Native Americans to house the birds). In the past week or so, I’ve seen signs of martin nesting, green leaves layered over the dried pine needles we’d placed in the gourds earlier, and been eagerly waiting for the eggs to show up, this next week or two being the usual time. Purple martins typically lay four to five eggs, sometimes up to seven, one a day at sunrise, not missing a day until the full clutch is done. As of today, I only have two eggs in each of two nests (meaning one was laid yesterday and one today) and one egg in another nest (laid today). But it looks like I have seven to nine other active nests where I’m hoping eggs start appearing. As I work the nests, the birds either fly around or sit on a wire nearby, watching and calling, not at all frightened or angry. They seem by habit or instinct aware that I’m helping them out, and as soon as I raise the nests back up the pole, they return and go about their business. Our business, I would like to think.