Purple Martin season all but over.
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The latest "my" martins have been here was Aug. 10. Today is the 12th, and as I was lowering the rack to start the clean up, about 12 martins came zooming in from nowhere, chattering and flying around the air space above me. I guess it's not over till the fat martins sing!
They are finished with nesting and fledging and are no longer coming in the gourds at night.
My final stats aren't as good as normal this year. A hawk killed one of the females a couple days before her five eggs should have hatched. While the male bird will feed and fledge chicks on his own, he cannot incubate them so all five eggs died.
This year I hung 14 gourds on the 16-arm rack. One gourd was, and still is, waiting for the new tunnel to be caulked in. (Hiding my face in shame!)
I had 12 active pair of Purple Martins. They laid 65 eggs in 12 gourds.
9 of the 65 eggs did not hatch. Four of these were from four different nests and contained partially developed embryos. The other five are the ones that lost the female martin.
65 eggs laid.
56 chicks hatched.
54 chicks fledged.
One dead chick was injured severely and pulled out of the nest. This was the hawk again.
I just checked all the empty nests. Gourd 9 had the sad, dried remains of a chick about the same age (15 days old) as the one that was pulled out and tossed on the ground. Hawk.
Fat and happy and about 9 days old.
Even fatter, and happier than they appear! (A photo from a past year; I didn't get too many taken this summer.) This was one of my first nests with 7 chicks!
This is why I do it. A few new babies read to take on the world.
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First Purple Martin Arrives!
Comments (11)Terrene, The ancient martins of the past once nested in hollow tree snags,old woodpecker holes,etc and some including myself think they mave have used rocky outcroppings,cliffsides,and river banks very similar to how the Rough Winged Swallow,Barn,and the Cliff Swallow nests today. To me this would explain their use of mud in their nests. There would be no need for mud in a deep woodpecker cavity or tree hollow but maybe the ancient martins used mud to seal off a rock crevice or something similar?? All fun questions to think about and wonder. The native American Indians of the south first started attracting martins by using gourds. Most likely it happened by accident as the Indians hung the gourds to dry. Well maybe the mice(that love to eat gourd seeds)got into them as they hung there in the winter drying. They ate a hole in the gourd and in the spring the martins took them. After the Indians noticed this they liked the martins and then started purposely hanging the gourds for them? Again fun questions to think about. When the white man settled in this country they began to build wooden houses for martins along with adopting the Indians practice of hanging gourds and then the stage was set for making the Purple Martin so dependant on man for housing as they are today. I think that in ancient days of this country when the great forests once dominated that the martins were not as common as they are today with the increased open area and that is most likely true. However the greatest threat to martins now is their need for man made housing and of course their number one enemies the Starlings and the House Sparrows. When these two birds came on the scene they slowly began to push out the martins wherever they became common. Gone were the days of simply putting up a martin house with 2 inch round holes in it and forgetting about it. Same with the Bluebirds and if it were not for the 1 and 1\2 inch entrance hole in BB Boxes the Eastern Bluebird would not be near as common as they are now. The 1 and 1\2 hole stopped the starlings and then they only had the House Sparrows to deal with. Fortunately for the Purple Martin there are now SREH(Starling Resistent Entrance Holes)and they have helped martins everywhere now not have to deal with starlings and wherever this is happening the martins are doing great. My site is nearly 100% clinger SREH now and it is such a sitisfying feeling knowing the martins are protected from those nest stealing,murdering starlings. Martins can deal with the sparrows to a point but not starlings and having the SREH is the only way to go these days if you seek a martin colony. I have been a martin landlord since I was 11 years old Terrene and all. I never tire of watching them and they are such a great part of summertime in this country. They are as American as baseball,apple pie,your Grandma's country biscuits,etc..smile..Thanks to all people who now use the SREH and trap and control the House Sparrows at their martin colonies. It simply helps the martins bigtime and so many other native songbirds continue to exist and live free and un harrassed in their own country. Man has in a way changed the nesting habits of the martins and this one question is always in my mind when I watch them. What would happen if all of a sudden man stopped supplying them housing?? Would their ancient instincts kick back in and send them back to cliffs,riverbanks,hollows,etc??? That is a lot to ponder right there I know that...Mike...See MoreMy Controller\Purple Martin Guardian
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...See MoreYellow and purple all season bloom?
Comments (2)I found a beautiful purslane, it's yellow with a pink center, it bloomed it's little head off, does not need dead heading or water everyday like some plants. Another plant you might like is a desert rose, this would need to be brought in for winter but so worth having, doesn't not need much water. I don't know how large of an area you have but from the quantity of plants on your list I'm thinking it's large. One thing to keep in mind when using containers, these dry out faster but you can put mulch on top to help also bare in mind that dark colors heat up while light color pot's stay cooler, plastic is best, taracotta dries out unless you spray the inside with pruning spray that's for trees or paint the inside. Anything staying outside over winter would need plastic. Roses do well in pots too. You could be some of the mini roses, carpet roses or knockout roses and they can stay outside year around. Daylilies can be kept in pots too and man are there some beauties, narrowing it down to just a few might be hard but if you like yellow's and purples I think you'd be very happy with a few. There are some daylilies that get up to 3 feet tall so you could hind the pot behind other potted plants and have the daylily flower looming above the others. The daylily cannot be planted with others in a pot the roots need the room. Doing annuals that reseed is good but this would not work out well if your patio does not get rain water. This is what seeds rely on for growing next year. Although if your able to remember to water often it might work. I know I didn't stay within your color request but just thought I'd let you know there's lots of thing's you can grow in containers that you might not have been aware of. Hope you hear from you next spring on how the patio garden is going. Barb Here is a link that might be useful: detailed information on desert rose adenium odesum...See MoreChicks poppin' out all over! (Purple Martins)
Comments (22)What a TREAT! Thank you, Caroline. And thanks to Jemdandy for the hatching info. Amazing that the birds *know* which is the very best gourd! And that they put up defenses as needed (mud dams). I hope those paint chips are not from lead-based paint. Do you have a good population of bugs to keep these guys fed? We are on our second batch of Cardinal matings here 30 miles north of Chicago. DH says he heard an owl two nights ago. I hope the owl sticks around -- something is making 2" diameter holes in my lawn, and it must be nocturnal because I only see chipmunks during the day....See More- 9 years ago
- 9 years ago
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