Gave talk on martins to birding group -- worked out great

[John Miller]

I had an opportunity today to give a field presentation to a birding group that meets weekly in Forest Park, St. Louis, where I manage housing.

It worked out great and may be something others here would want to consider.

Bird watching is growing hobby and many of these folks are not knowledgeable about martins -- they know a lot more about warblers than I -- but most are not very familiar with purple martins.

However, maybe there's a lot of potential to interest new people in becoming purple martin landlords by reaching out to bird watchers. When I finally got the group of 15 over to stand in front of our park martin housing -- they stalled several times walking over to it to turn their binoculars first at a king bird and then some other bird -- they seemed quite enchanted. I planned on a 15 minute talk and a demonstration of a nest check, but their great questions kept me talking for an hour.

My goal was simply for birders in the park to be more aware of the martins, so they could help keep an eye on the housing. But from the response to the field talk, I think a few may consider putting up housing.

Maybe the key to getting more people -- including birders -- interested in martins is to actually get them to stand in front of housing and see the martins. When you can look up from 15 feet below at a beautiful male martin who is chirping down at you and you don't need binoculars, it's pretty engaging.

Just some thoughts -- it was a good day.

John M

[Matt F.]

Great work John!

You are truly a great ambassador for the Martins!

[Glen Webb Jr]

I gave a talk on martins last year at the Ballard Nature Center in Altamont, IL. The Center wondered if I'd be interested due to the large volume of questions and interest in the gourd racks in front of the Center grounds. I think maybe 6 people showed up, 4 of them were with our local Illinois Audubon Chapter. disappointing for the numbers but what was supposed to be an hour talk with the PMCAs slide show ended up being 2 hours and 45 minutes of talking. I couldn't believe how quickly the time went but they maintained interest the entire time. One thing is for sure, if anything is known about martins by the general public, it's all those horrible silly tales of feet and granduer, i.e. eating only mosquitoes, leading flocks back from Brazil to new grounds, nesting only in aluminum houses (which from the looks of things in the area in the last couple of year, this notion is finally subsiding as gourds are popping up everywhere).

The program was a lot of fun though and I'd do it again. I was a little nervous at first as I don't much care for large groups of people and giving lectures and the such. But after about 10 minutes, things really took off and I was fine.

[oneidalaker]

This year's talk for me was with the Betsy Baldwin Chapter of the Daughter's of the American Revolution (DAR) in Baldwinsville, New York. As always the talk went longer than planned due to the excellent questions posed by the audience. I encourage all martin landlords to consider giving talks in their area. The PMCA has a program available for use or you can use powerpoint to develop your own talk. Don't worry about getting stage fright, once the audience sees a few pictures of martins they will be hooked and your enthusiasm for the subject cause you to forget your stage fright. Next thing you'll know, it will be two hours later and you'll be wondering how the time passed by so fast.

[John Miller]

Thanks for you comments. You are right that the questions keep you from getting stage fright -- there's no time.

I found questions from this particular group to be a little surprising. Some samples:

What if the martins show up and all the housing is occupied?
How many could you have at one site? How few?
Can you feel the weight of the house more (rope and pully) when it's full of babies?

I'm not going to answer those questions here -- will leave that to Mr. Sparky!

John M

[Kent Justus]

John,

Nice work! I think you are right. All of us who really care enough to manage our colonies the right way should contact our local birding groups and set up a field day at our own colonies to show everyone the correct way to manage martins. Keep up the good work. - Kent / Mt. Vernon, AR

[KathyF]

John,
Very cool! I've been flying out of St. Louis airport and been wanting to stop by and see your seutp at the park, but flight delays lately have been horrid and I thought the tours probably stopped by 10 PM.

Anyway, did you create your own presentation to use? A lot of the housing around this area - all the way north to Rolla - is in either poor locations or poor repair, etc. There are a LOT of them! Even among some of the self-proclaimed "martin experts" around here, there is a lot to be learned. For example, my aunt(one of those "experts) , who has 22 pair told me the other day that martins do NOT drink & bathe from lakes on the fly. So, I'm going to take the Ron Vasser picture & show her.

So, I'm thinking of finding a birding group around here and if one doesn't exist, to form one. I think it would be great fun! Any suggestions?!?

[John Miller]

Hi Kathy

If you get a chance to tour our sites in Forest Park, give a call. I'll send you my phone no. by PM

I've made a brief outline in the past for an inside talk, but this time I "winged it." Particularly doing a talk in front of the housing, you can just give a few brief remarks about martins being totally dependent on man-made housing etc., show them a nest check and then begin to let their questions flow. The martins are the real show.

John

[Julio]

John this is great to hear, wish we had more people like you. I'm sure you made quite an impression