Purple Martin eggs!
It's that time of year again...
Since I was gone for 2+ weeks, I had no idea what I would find when I got home to peek inside the PMs' gourds.
I just finished a thorough nest check.
There are 15 gourds hanging on the 14' tall rack.
There are 15 pairs of martins with 15 nests.
Each and every gourd has a nest. There are no bachelor pads this year! (Bachelor pads are where one male claims two gourds; one for his mate and her eggs, the other for himself.)
Each and every nest has eggses!
There are a total of ... 78 Eggs!
I don't know what day(s) they started laying or incubating, so I don't know if there will be more eggs or not. I will do another nest check Monday.
Gourd 6 has the most elaborate nest. There is a mud dam; sticks and straw stems are laid neatly in order, a foil lining is behind the eggs, and a thick pad of green leaves cushions and hydrates the six eggs.
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Seeing Purple: Purple Martins in Larimore!
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*?...See MorePurple Martins now laying eggs
Comments (3)Oh yes! Photos will be showing up soon. Some of them will look like this! LOL This photo is from 2012; I already had eggs hatching on June 15 of that year. The eggs I have now won't hatch until about July 7....See MoreFewer nests, so far, but more eggs
Comments (4)Hi caroline! There have been reports of nests with 10 or more eggs this year. One landlord reported 15 eggs! I think they're having more because of the cold. Sounds like you're going to have a wonderful season!...See More'Eggses! Eggses!'
Comments (7)Hi Jannie. I do appreciate the concern, but these gourds are hung from a 14 ft. tall, round steel pole. I've never had a cat even attempt it. LOL If a cat did manage to get up there, I think I'd have to give him a can of sardines as a reward the effort! Most of my gourds, (and soon all of them) have 3" PVC tunnel entrances. Cats, owls, hawks, etc. are deterred by these tunnels. They could reach in, but they couldn't move their legs/paws/claws downward and back far enough to reach the nest cups. The photo below was taken looking in through the open access port and toward the back of the entrance tunnel....See More
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