A New Summer Home

With A View At Ashlar

By Jan Howard

New residences have been added to Ashlar of Newtown off Toddy Hill Road. And the rent is free if you have the right feathers. A purple martin house now stands overlooking the pond in front of Lockwood Lodge.

 It is hoped that next spring purple martin scouts will find the house and return to their winter home to tell others about the new house erected for their use.

Col John C. Kulp, Jr, a resident of Lockwood Lodge, and David Nugent, maintenance assistant for Ashlar of Newtown, coordinated their talents recently in putting together the project.

 Col Kulp ordered the kit for the purple martin house from an Illinois company. The house is designed to house 12 pairs of purple martins and their young.

 Col. Kulp said he had one of the houses at his home in Pennsylvania and thought it would be something of interest for Ashlar and Lockwood Lodge residents and employees.

 “It’s a nice spot. People at the home and the nursing home will be able to see it where it is,” Col Kulp said. “I enjoy it myself. ”

 He said the purple martins are enjoyable to watch as they swirl about on longer-than-average wings.

The purple martins winter in Brazil and sometimes in Argentina, said Col Kulp, an avid bird enthusiast. “They live where it’s wet because they live mostly off flying insects, mostly mosquitoes.”

It is believed that one purple martin can eat 1,000 to 2,000 mosquitoes a day, he said. “They are very interesting, and they are better than all the poison you can get to kill insects.

“They come here in March, but in February they send scouts to look for homes,” he said. “If we get martins, we’ll put up more houses.” 

The house, which cost about $200, is made of aluminum. Col Kulp noted that the two greatest enemies of the purple martins are sparrows and starlings, which are always looking for places to build nests. The house is designed so it can be lowered to remove nests of other birds, he said.

Col Kulp took about a week to assemble the house and completed it two weeks ago. Mr Nugent then put the finishing touches on it, dug the hole for the pole, and erected the house in front of Lockwood Lodge.

“It took me an hour and a half to two hours to put it up,” Mr Nugent said. “I didn’t have much to do.”

The house contains 12 homes that would serve 12 pairs of purple martins and two young each.

Purple martins are the largest birds in the swallow family, Col Kulp explained. Their size is midway between a starling and sparrow. “They have long wings,” he said.

“They are known for mosquito catching,” he said. He noted that Native Americans hung up gourds to attract them so they would keep mosquitoes away.