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The Kitchen Table

Purple Martins still laying; Tree Swallows hatching,

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

and one love-crazed house wren is desperately seeking a female!

My Sunday morning Purple Martin nest check found 12 nests with 62 eggs.

I now have 15 gourds hung on the 16 arms of the gourd rack.. The subbies haven't arrived yet, but if they do they have three empty gourds to fight over - Gourds 5, 16, and 17.

My newest numbers...

Tier #1 - 8 gourds

Gourd 1 - 6 eggs
Gourd 2 - 6 eggs
Gourd 3 - 7 eggs!
Gourd 4 - 6 eggs
Gourd 5 - No eggs, but has a few green leaves
Gourd 6 - 7 eggs!
Gourd 7 - 7 eggs!
Gourd 8 - 2 eggs (Same count as of June 9)

Tier #2 - 7 gourds

Gourd 9 - 4 eggs
Gourd 10 - 2 eggs
Gourd 11 - 6 eggs
Arm 12 - No gourd hung
Gourd 14 - 5 eggs
Gourd 16 - 0 eggs

Gourd 17 - 0 eggs
Gourd 18 - 4 eggs

From all the zooming in and out, I do believe the six Tree Swallow eggs have begun hatching. I'm not going to bother them with a nest check for a few days.

I also have a love-crazed house wren trying to convenience a female he's a good catch. She's not buying it. I've seen some crazy house wren antics, but this dude be out there.

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caroline94535
Original Author

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

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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Comments (8)

User
11 years ago
and one love-crazed house wren is desperately seeking a female!

I'm an artist...amongst a world of other things...LOL...and I tend to visualize actual objects/scenes when I think/read. Sorta like my own mental home movies. You just gave me my real laugh-out-loud giggle for the day, Caroline. Thank you!!! I will carry that frantic wren around with me for the rest of the day. LOL
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My Controller\Purple Martin Guardian
Q
Comments (2)
Sounds and looks like a neat place. I have never been birding outside the United States but that looks neat. Thanks for the tip. I wonder if there are starlings there?? Probably darn it grin..suckers have spread all over the globe now it seems except like maybe Antarctica or the far north. I wish they would all go there from the United States anyway and maybe freeze solid before they realized they went too far south. My trap had another one in it this very morning and it was great to see him behind bars as I sipped my morning coffee while watching my now 20 martins all over the gourds smile...Mike
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The Purple Martins are laying eggs
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Comments (7)
Lily, every one that enjoys any species of birds is lucky, too! I am very proud of my little PM colony though. I don't know where they're nesting, but I have a pair of catbirds that visit my nectar feeder every day. Yes; they have a sweet tooth hidden in that sharp little beak! I use an older style Opus nectar/"oriole" feeder. It has rubber plugs that function as bee guards. I took two of them off and was surprised at all the other birds that love sugar water when they can get too it. I've seen chickadees, house finches, purple finches, Hairy and Downey woodpeckers, and hummingbirds all using it, along with the expected orioles. Of course, I don't have a photo of the catbird on it, but this is the nectar feeder all the yard birds enjoy.
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Still have one active Purple Martin nest; and hawk woes
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Comments (5)
Always a treat to hear about your 'babies', Caroline. We're on round three of Cardinals -- if the young ones a-courtin' now lay eggs. We have mature arbor vitae around two sides of our lot -- and some privit that they seem to favor. I was drawn to the creek last week by calling between a pair of (I think?) Flickers and their four 'kids'. (Whistling cries; spotted breasts; red 'gorgets' on their necks.) They were searching for insects on tree trunks -- and probably finding plenty of emerald ash borers. We have some big tree removal bills coming up!
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It's almost Purple (Martin) time in ND
Q
Comments (6)
Sure hope you feel better and I know those martins will arrive soon. Since I moved, I don't see as many birds as I use to, and do miss getting out into the yard in Lansford checking on where the robins will build. Son in law said he would put up a martin house for me but never got around to it. I am in Minot now in apts. Had to downsize due to leg problems in climbing stairs. Take care and keep us informed with notes and pictures Marie from ND
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User
11 years ago
That's priceless!!! LOL I can just see the look on her little feathered face. LOL Poor Romeo! He needs to find a dumber Juliet. LOL

There are hundreds of House Wrens in my home area and they are wonderful to watch. I just love them! Their regular baths in either rain puddles or dusty dirt holes during dryer times give me such pleasure. Not only are they a comical group...they've kept several local plants and trees healthy over my years here by enjoying very bird healthy diets of insects and related pests.

Once again...thank you, Caroline. You've made my day!
glenda_al
11 years ago
Thanks for the :o)
User
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
That is so cool! My daughter gave me a gourd house last year for my birthday and we hung it out back. It has a nest in it but we're not sure what, swallow or finch maybe? It's very small. Would love to see pics of your gourd tree, never heard of one, but it sounds so fun...I could watch the birds in our yard all day long, their antics make me smile.
caroline94535
Original Author
11 years ago
Here's a photo from a couple years ago after all the eggs hatched and the young fledges (flew out on their own power).

The pole is about 14-feet tall to the round pulley on tp.
caroline94535
Original Author
11 years ago
This photo is from the June 9 nest check. It shows the seven eggs in Gourd 6. Aren't they pretty?

They didn't bother adding very much nesting material to the tightly packed cedar shavings pre-nest I provided. None of my birds have made nests of any consequence this year. Some years they build engineering marvels.

This year most of them added a few leaves, a twig here and there, and called it good.
caroline94535
Original Author
11 years ago
This shows the pole and gourd rack in my front yard. They need wide open fly-ways; there's no way they 2ould nest in my backyard with all the trees there, so the front yard is where I planted the pole.

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