Saturday, June 18, 2022 | Country Acres • Page 25
Realforestate the martins
PHOTOS BY GRACE JEURISSEN
Birdhouses line the horizon at Jeremy Helmin’s home June 9 near Little Falls. There are currently five purple martin houses on his property.
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Helmin provides bird sanctuary in backyard BY GRACE JEURISSEN | STAFF WRITER
ITTLE FALLS – Swooping, twirling, singing and flight are the sights and sounds from the back deck of Jeremy Helmin’s home in Morrison County. Though this may invoke images of a circus, or maybe extreme acrobatics, it is far smaller and no peanuts are sold. “I could sit back here and watch them for hours,” Helmin said. “The mornings are my favorite because of the chorus they put on.” When Helmin would sit on his grandmother’s dock while fishing as a young boy, he would listen to the activity that surrounded the lake. Sounds like frogs, crickets, boat motors and a sweet rolling chirp from the quick shadow that hovered along the lake, filled the air. Eventually, curiosity got the best of him and he found out that the rolling chirps were from the purple martins that were in residence at a neighbor’s home. He knew he had to add that wildlife to his home in the country. Between the months of April and August, Helmin’s backyard is plentiful, with around 100 purple martins that formed a colony among his five extravagant birdhouses. Every winter, the martins navigate themselves nearly 5,000 miles to southeastern Brazil to spend their “vacation” before the nesting and breeding season the next
Helmin page 27
Jeremy Helmin builds purple martin houses in his free time. This design would take him about a week to assemble from beginning to end.
PROUD TO BE YOUR HOMETOWN LUMBER COMPANY SINCE 1971! 18508 County Rd 130, Paynesville, MN 56362
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Bork Lumber & Steel is a lumber company and building center located in Central Minnesota. Our Mission is to provide our customers with the best service, lumber and building materials available to meet their residential, commercial and agricultural needs.
