Part 2 of the long "Death of a Martin" mystery.

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Some graphic references to death, rigor, "bugs," and "attacks." "Nature" is rarely kind, gentle, sweet, or easy. It's closer to "eat or be eaten"; "winner take all"; and "fight to the death".

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After talking with several Purple Martin landlords who have years, and decades, of experience, I feel the female PM died of either natural causes, or was the attack victim. She flew back to her gourd and then died from the injuries.

Either way, PMs will remove dead adults from the gourds. Her mate could have pushed her out, or the new female, wanting to take over the gourd, could have removed her.

Apparently birds will be in rigor for 10-12 hours after death and the fly larvae will hatch in 24 hours or less, depending on the weather.

It all adds up. She was the female with two eggs in Gourd 2. She died; the new female removed her and buried the eggs to make room for her own.

The June 9 egg count is now 27 eggs in 6 nests.

I'll continue doing nest checks daily. There's just too much I could miss doing them every other day.

There's been a SY female in and out of Gourd 2 all day. I can tell she's "new" to the colony from her behaviour. The dead female was an ASY (After Second Year = fully mature).

The eggs in Gourd 11 are being incubated; they were toasty warm. Since incubation began today, I know the dead martin did not belong in this gourd.

I took the two orphaned eggs out Gourd 2. I put a small ink mark on them and "adopted" each of them out to other nests (Gourds 4 and 12). Each of these nests had four eggs and began incubation today. They now have five eggs each. (PMs typically lay 4-8 eggs.)

The experiment will work...or not. At least the two eggs have a chance of hatching in the new nests.

The new female in Gourd 2, not having laid eggs yet, would not accept them. Once a hen lays eggs you can add more, or remove some. They don't seem to know how to count. But if they don't have any, they won't accept a planted one.

A PM couple have been frantically building a nest in Gourd 14 all day, so I may have one more pair soon. They count as a nesting pair as soon as the first egg is laid.

Today's nest check results...

Gourd 1 - Bachelor's Pad

Gourd 2 - Back to zero

Gourd 3 - Bachelor's Pad

Gourd 4 - 4 original + 1 adopted = 5 eggs, incubating

Gourd 5 - 5 eggs, incubating

Gourd 6 - 5 eggs, incubating

Gourd 7 - Bachelor's Pad

Gourd 8 - 2 eggs

Gourd 9 - Empty

Gourd 11 - 5 eggs, incubating

Gourd 12 - 4 original + 1 adopted = eggs, incubating

Gourd 14 - Nest Building

Gourd 15 - Bachelor's Pad

** Bachelor's Pad ** Second year males rarely get a mate and nest. They will take a gourd, or house cavity, build a small ,and sit there and sing for weeks on end hoping to attract a girl.

They also cause havoc trying to steal mates and disrupt nesting. They are like living next door to a teen-aged gang.