Thousands of purple martins are returning to Shockoe Bottom, after all. A few weeks ago, it appeared that most of the Bottom’s summer visitors had moved somewhere else this season. But about 4,000 to 5,000 martins are once again swirling over the Bottom at dusk before swooping into a row of Bradford pear trees just north of the 17th Street Farmers’ Market.

Shockoe Bottom’s second purple-martin festival is just four days away, but the guests of honor are not cooperating. Last year in mid-July, about 4,000 martins would darken the sky at dusk before flying into a row of trees on North 17th Street to spend the night. On Sunday, only about 300 birds arrived. Many swooped down toward the trees, then flew away.

The Bottom birds are back. Purple martins, which roost in Shockoe Bottom trees by the thousands before flying to Brazil, are now arriving in small numbers. “It’s starting up,“ said Mike Wilson, a biologist with the Center for Conservation Biology, part of the College of William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University. Sue Ridd, a member of the Richmond Audubon Society, said she saw about 75 birds arrive Sunday at dusk, and she saw about 100 swoop into the trees Monday.

To see the purple martins:
Drive east on East Main Street to Shockoe Bottom. Turn left on North 17th Street.
Cross East Franklin Street and see the birds’ roost trees on your left. Wait on the sidewalk across the street from the trees.
Right now, the birds arrive between 8:30 and 9 p.m. They arrive a little earlier each night.
If you wait a couple of weeks, you’ll see more birds.

No one knows if people will flock to Shockoe Bottom to watch baseball. But we do know that purple martins flock there in summer. And that could be a problem. As it stands, the proposal for a minor-league ballpark in the Bottom would require the cutting of all, or nearly all, the trees in which the colorful birds roost by the thousands.