Purple martins have nested at St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus for the second straight year.<\/p>\n
The birds\u2019 return heralds the establishment of a new, perennial colony within the expansive greenspace at the Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township.<\/p>\n
Purple Martins, which migrate northward from as far south as the Amazon jungle to spend the spring and summer in the United States, were once commonplace in Lehigh and Northampton counties. They depend on man-made nesting sites, which local farmers used to erect since the birds would eat the bugs that might otherwise destroy their crops.<\/p>\n
But as farming in this region declined, so too did the Purple Martin population.<\/p>\n
To Tom Fiorini, St. Luke\u2019s Director of Landscape Services, this presented an enticing challenge: Could the birds be lured back?<\/p>\n
In a grove of young maple trees in an arboretum next to a pond at the Anderson Campus, he mounted a tall pole encircled with racks of gourd-shaped bird houses two winters ago. For months, the bird houses remained vacant \u2013 until June 2025. At first, just a few birds moved in. Before long, though, they had some chicks, and then the whole complex was bustling.<\/p>\n
To verify the nesting last year, photographs of the birds were sent to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y., which confirmed they were Purple Martins. Peter Saenger of Muhlenberg College\u2019s\u00a0Acopian\u00a0Center for Ornithology also reviewed the photographs and reached the same conclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have first year success, means you have a very good location,\u201d Saenger said, who noted that east of the Mississippi River, Purple Martins are 100% dependent on man-made nests. \u201cSo, what you have done there is phenomenally important.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery colony is important since Purple Martins in the east are 100% dependent upon these\u00a0man-made\u00a0nesting sites.\u00a0 Groups in the area, along with those at Anderson, are helping to establish a significant population of these beautiful and utilitarian birds in the Lehigh Valley area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purple Martins\u2019 symbiotic relationship with humans predates the arrival of Europeans to North America. Indians were the first to recognize their utility for pest control and use gourd nesting sites to attract them.<\/p>\n
The largest of the New World swallows, Purple Martins are acrobatic flyers that love nothing more than gorging themselves on flying insects which, of course, are no less of a nuisance for people today than they were for the Indians and farmers of the past. The birds tend to nest near permanent water sources, such as ponds \u2013 of which the 500-acre Anderson Campus has several, as well as proximity to the Lehigh River.<\/p>\n
The Anderson Campus is also home to an organic farm that grows healthy produce for the hospital and acres upon acres of sunflower fields, so insect life flourishes there, making it\u00a0ideal\u00a0habitat for Purple Martins and many other species too.<\/p>\n
When Fiorini is working at the Anderson Campus, he checks on his Purple Martins and takes\u00a0great pleasure\u00a0in watching them snatch flying insects out of the air to feed their insatiable chicks. \u201cThe coolest thing,\u201d he said, \u201cis that they are going to know this spot, and they\u2019ll keep coming back year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n
About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n Founded in 1872, St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than\u00a0$4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s biggest employer.<\/p>\n The Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.<\/p>\n Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established\u00a0the Lehigh\u00a0Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows. Additionally, the St. Luke\u2019s College of Health Sciences opened in 2026.<\/p>\n In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke\u2019s #1 \u2013 ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation\u2019s most prestigious institutions \u2013 as the nation\u2019s top health system for quality,\u00a0safety\u00a0and patient experience. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirms St. Luke\u2019s preeminent position as THE BEST OF THE BEST among the most respected health care systems in the United States.<\/p>\n St. Luke\u2019s has been named a Leapfrog Group Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. In 2026,\u00a0all of\u00a0the Network\u2019s eligible hospital campuses were awarded Medicare\u2019s highest ratings for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. The Network also earned straight A\u2019s for safety from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 12 years in a row, including in 2026 when the Network was identified as THE #1 MEDIUM-SIZE HEALTH SYSTEM IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n Information provided to TVL by: Purple martins have nested at St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus for the second straight year. The birds\u2019 return heralds the establishment of a new, perennial colony within the expansive greenspace at the Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township. Purple Martins, which migrate northward from as far south as the Amazon jungle to spend the spring and summer … Continue reading The Purple Martins are Back at St. Lukes\u2019 Anderson Campus<\/span>
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"