Every year around this time, you can find excited bird watchers all around Lake Murray hoping to catch a glimpse of the Purple Martin.

Purple Martins are a Neotropical bird species that migrate to and from North and South America every spring and fall in search of insect life. They typically spend their winters in South American countries like Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Guyana, and then migrate to North America to spend their summers laying eggs and raising chicks in the USA and southern Canada.

And as it happens, Lexington County is home to the largest Purple Martin roost in America, nestled on Bomb Island on Lake Murray, and these beautiful birds, characterized by dark, blackish-blue feathers with an iridescent sheen caused by the diffraction of incident light, descend in droves upon the island every year.

Peak roosting time is between June and August when somewhere around 1,000,000 Purple Martins visit the sanctuary as a sort of layover as they make the long journey south to their winter home in South America.

Typically, the birds are most visible at two times during the day: morning and evening. The Martins leave the island at dawn each morning for a day of insect hunting and training their newborns for the long flight to Brazil in the fall. In fact, it has been recorded that when flocks of birds 10,000 strong or more leave Bomb Island in the morning, there are so many in the flock that it sounds like an explosion, and the local weather radar has said the image is larger than Hurricane Hugo was in 1989.

And if you want to see these majestic creatures from the swallow family, there are plenty of opportunities to do so with a guided boat tour led by bird experts. There are several cruise options to choose from, most notably a trip on The Spirit of Lake Murray, an 80-foot SkipperLiner yacht that is one of the better-known and loved institutions of Lexington County.

Carolina Safari Co. and USCG Captain and Naturalist Zach Steinhauser also host a tour via pontoon. Steinhauser has been all over North and South America studying this migratory songbird, so your guide for this tour is undeniably one of the most knowledgeable tour guides on the lake.

Ultimately, though, whether you are a bird lover or not, living locally or visiting from out of town, you don’t want to miss this extraordinary phenomenon.

Why not embark on a journey of discovery on Lake Murray with any of the experienced guides who will take you to witness this avian phenomenon? Most tours last about two hours, which is plenty of time to take in the beauty of both Lake Murray and the fine feathered friends who make it a temporary home each summer. So, grab your binoculars and happy hunting.