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Purple Martins on Lake Murray
Lake
Murray has the largest purple martin roost in North America. The purple martin
is a small insect eating bird with dark purple feathers. The martins roost on
Bomber Island in the middle of the Lake. The martins congregate to store energy
for the long migration to South America. Bomber Island is a protected sanctuary
for the martins to build strength and energy stores. The birds will begin
congregating in June of each year. The lake benefits from the massive number of
purple martins in that the martins eat an enormous quantity of insects,
including mosquitos!!! This is the reason that you will have the occassional
insect bite as compared to some of the other waterways in South Carolina. Below
are a few pictures from last summer while watching the birds as they come to
roost on the island at sunset. We will try to keep posting notes on the status
of the purple martins as we observe them over the comming months.
Notice the thousands of birds flying as they pepper the sky in the
following pictures!
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