Purple martins fly back at Lake Murray

Purple martin mania is back at Lake Murray after a year’s absence.

Thousands of the birds are returning to Bomb Island after largely bypassing their long-time roost there last summer.

“It looks like it’s back, although not as big,” said Sidney Gauthreaux, director of the Clemson University Radar Ornithology Laboratory. “It seems substantially less.”

The comeback is a relief for tourism officials, tour boat operators and shoreline residents even if the flock is smaller.

“Whether or not it’s the same as in the past is for experts to say,” said David Landis of Lexington, president of the Lake Murray Association. “We’re just happy to see them.”

The roost in past years has been as large as 1 million birds at times, according to unofficial estimates.

For roughly a quarter century, boaters have gone near the island in July and August to watch the acrobatic cloud that the birds create at dawn and sunset.

“If you haven’t seen it before, it’s still cool to see,” said Andrew Colton, whose family operates the Spirit of Lake Murray tour boat. Its first cruise to watch the birds is Saturday.

The birds went to Lake Monticello about 50 miles to the northeast last year. S.C. Department of Natural Resources officials and other experts still haven’t figured out why.

Purple martins are migratory birds who spend the winter in South America. They feed on insects during the day before returning to roosts as dark falls.

Lake tourism director Miriam Atria is happily promoting bird-watching again. “It’s another avenue to draw visitors here,” she said.

Experts have no clue whether purple martins will continue settling in the middle of the 47,500-acre lake.

“We can’t read their minds,” Gauthreaux said.

This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Purple martins fly back at Lake Murray."