Listening to a Continent Sing

Mr. Charles Haupt, whose family has owned this Haupt Country Store since 1893, tells of his love-affair with purple martins. Martins are "very very pleasurable birds to be around," and "they'll make you happy," he declares. "They like people. They like for you to stand around and talk to them, just like we're doing now."

He tells how he lost the colony in a storm 30 years ago when they were migrating, how he shoots the sparrows and starlings who dare to intrude, how he hopes our conversation will encourage others to "get a colony going."

Background

Purple martins, traffic on the John Tyler Memorial Highway (Route 5), customers at the store.

Photo by Ev & Ed Wengrofsky

Photo by Don Kroodsma