Nathan Falsnott, an 11th grade FFA member from Delaware, manages a purple martin colony as his supervised agricultural experience project in the Natural Resources Pathway. Purple martins are cavity-nesting birds that migrate from Brazil each spring and rely almost entirely on human-provided housing to survive, making them important for natural pest control on farms. Nathan's project has grown from a single house in 2019 to seven poles hosting over 80 birds, requiring weekly monitoring of nests, egg hatching progress, and fledgling development while maintaining safety precautions.
