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The Kitchen Table

And they've arrived! (Purple Martins)

12 years ago

10:43 a.m.

Sunday, 27 April 2014

35 degrees, cloudy, wind, rainy.

I look out to the front yard and see four Purple Martins circling the gourds and one more comfortably bedded down in Gourd 3 with only his beak peeking out.

These were all ASYs (after second year=fully mature) birds, four males and one female.

I also saw a tree swallow and had to promptly run out in the cold drizzle to shut down the front of his nest box. I'd opened it a few days ago for a "spring airing."

And so begins my 11th Purple Martin season.

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Comments (6)

glenda_al
12 years ago
Yea! Caroline, enjoy your 11th Purple Martin season!

Love when you share your pictures!
socks
12 years ago
Wonderful, very exciting.

Don't understand the part about the tree swallow.
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purple martins
Q
Comments (3)
PAT, Anytine now but April most likely if you have never had martins before. Have you?? I highly encourage you to use Starling Resistent entrances on your gourds if you don't have them. My clinger entrance works so sweet to keep out starlings and if you truly want a martin colony you must not allow starlings to be around occupying the gourds in any form. If you don't have the SREH then you need to shoot the,trap them..whatever. They simply cannot be tolerated and here is why. If you have neevr had nesting martins before the ones that may visit will hardly give your gourds a chance if right away upon arrival that have to fight for a gourd with a bunch of starlings. They will simply move on. Now at an established martin colony they will fight for their rights more but in the end it is their doom. The starlings are more aggressive,they have legs like a fighting chicken,and a dagger beak that they kill martins will easily. Martins can outfly them easy but if a starling traps a martin inside a acavity and the martin fights back it is over for the martin every time. For these reasons starlings must not be allowed to be in your gourds and that is why you need to have the starling resistent entrance holes on them. I wish you the best of luck. Martins are wonderful birds and once you are hooked by their magic you will undertsand if you have never had them in your backyard before. They are simply forever summertime smile..Mike
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Seeing Purple: Purple Martins in Larimore!
Q
Comments (19)
What a treat! Thanks for sharing. I read such a discouraging article in the Chicago Tribune last week. It was about a bird tagging location near the Illinois/Wisconsin border that has been functioning for forty years. At first I thought the article said the number of birds had declined by ten to twenty percent, then...no, the number has declined TO ten to twenty percent of the migrating birds. They blame pollution and the declining habitat along migration routes. One of the tiny birds photographed had been recorded on migration from Northern Canada to South America. Our bird population has never come back more than a few percent from the die-off during avian flu a few years ago. I almost never see a crow or blue jay -- who thought I'd miss *them*?
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Purple Martins still laying; Tree Swallows hatching,
Q
Comments (8)
If at all possible, I will try to get a video. He was on top of the nest box just outside my kitchen window and facing the main tomato garden. Wrens are great for keeping tomato plants bug-free. He's hopping up and down on top of the box. Sometimes with both feet, sometimes on first the left foot - hop, hop, hop - and then the right foot - hop, hop, hop. Sometimes his hops take him up a couple inches; sometimes a foot or more. He has both wings dropped down with his head bobbing. Then holds first one wing and then the other out at various angles and contortions...all the while doing the multi-footed polka, and singing his fool heart out the entire time. He flies straight up a couple feet and then zig-zags back down to the nest box top. Again, singing that fool heart out. I expected him to have a major coronary at any second. She looked at him; she looked in the box, (a very fine Coveside chickadee box, with slate squirrel guard, by the way) did the birdy version of an eye roll, and zoomed off. Her mama raised her better than to hang out with that sort of boy. But then...good girls and bad boys...we know how that story plays out at times!
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It's Purple Martin time.
Q
Comments (5)
Yay! Welcome home, little ones! I'm waiting for the subbies to arrive. My first adults arrived 2/29, right on schedule. I haven't been counting but I think we're up to about 40 pairs. They're starting to build nests and I expect green leaves to be pulled off the pear tree (their favorite) soon.
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caroline94535
Original Author
12 years ago
Hi Socks, there was a Tree Swallow swooping all around the yard, and gourds. They normally arrive here two-three weeks after the Purple Martins

I keep most of the gourds closed off with duct tape until all the martins have arrived. This forces the very territorial TSs to take over their own nest box, which is 35 feet from the PM pole.

Once a pair of TSs claim the nest box, they will not bother the martins at all, plus they will keep all other Tree Swallows out of the yard, ensuring my 15 gourds are occupied by the Purple Martins.

If one pair of TSs were to decide to nest in one of the PM gourds, they would fight off every PM, and TS, that tried to nest on the pole. I can't allow one pair of TS to control 15 gourds! LOL

Here's a link to a rather clumsily written, but very informative article on Tree Swallow/Blue Bird/Purple Martin protocol so you can have all three species successfully nesting in one area and each one benefiting the others.

Here's one of my happy little tree swallows in a box about 30' from the PMs. There's a link to the protocol below the photo.

Here is a link that might be useful: Peace between TSs, BBs and PMx
Terri_PacNW
12 years ago
Tree swallows are naughty every where huh? Those little buggars are so defensive!

At the outdoor pool my boys took swimming lessons at every summer..they have nesting pairs out there some where...they love nothing more than to swoop in and grab a "drink" all day long.
I guess chlorinated water isn't to bad if you take tiny mouthfuls. :D
caroline94535
Original Author
12 years ago
Purple Martins and Barn Swallows drink, and bathe, the same way. Of course, they're all swallows. I haven't looked them up but I suppose Cave, Bank, and Cliff Swallows all drink in the same manner, too.

I love watching them "play" at the creek.
socks
12 years ago
Thanks, Caroline. It's all more complicated than one would think! After all the years, you really have learned how to manage the different populations.

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