Record Year For Martins in the Far North

[Bernie Nikolai]

Its sad reading the reports some folks have about heat, drought, and various stresses on the purple martins. I thought I'd report a bit of good news, the absolutely booming purple martin population here in Alberta at the extreme northwest part of the martin range.

Specifically at my main colony, last year I had 58 pairs. This year, despite moving the colony 100 yards north to a more open area over two years, there are 80 pairs. The young vary from newly laid eggs to being ready to fledge in two weeks. All birds seem fat and happy, despite our cool, wet, and much later than normal spring.

My two satellite colonies are 100% full, with two dozen pairs at each site. I checked with some friends newer to martins as well. In one case my buddy has two 8 unit North Stars with SREH. Last year he had two pairs, but this year 12 pairs. Another friend with homemade large compartment wooden housing with SREH had 14 pairs last year, but this year 37 pairs!

Why are martins doing so well on the extreme northwest part of their range up here? I'd say its the housing. We don't use metal housing at all up here, and those that do simply won't get martins to nest in metal houses. They are just far too cold in our cold springs. Most housing at serious martin sites is large compartment (around 7"x 12"), and much or most of the large compartment housing has 100% SREH. The two housing types that seem like martin magnets up here are the T14 and the North Star. I'm confident if we can increase the population of martins so dramatically up here in Alberta as landlords have done in the last few years, it can be done anywhere.

The recipe up north is actually quite simple. Large compartment wooden housing with SREH. Within a few years the martin population simply skyrockets from what I have seen as more and more landlords use this type of housing. Naturally, placing the housing in open locations and doing the normal "stewardship" of nest checks, feeding in cold weather, etc. is also very helpful.

I'm following with interest the slowly growing martin population in western Pennsylvania after decades of near extinction. What is the common denominator from what I read? Wooden T14 housing with SREH. I'm not at all against metal housing and agree metal works great if you live in the south or in Texas. But if you are in the north or even the middle of the martin breeding range, you can't go wrong with large compartment wooden houses with SREH.

[flyin-lowe]

Congrats on the good year.
My first successful nesting pair last year were in a T14 I ended up with 5 pair total and had 12 pair nesting this year. I have more subbies staying here now and have over 30 PM's. Not sure why I got an influx of subbies in the past two weeks but there are a bunch of them here. I don't know if there was a predator attack somewhere or what.

[ron20m]

I've had about a 20% fledge rate for four years in a row. Makes me wonder why they bother to stop in OK. I'm very happy for Martins to see your post. Hope your birds return north and don't stop in OK or Tex on the way back.

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

Bernie:

Thanks for the report on your colony. Just gives added documentation that martins can flourish in less populated areas of the country if the proper housing is provided and the colony is well managed. Good job.

Tim

[Bob Buskas]

EH, Bernie the other day I watched an ASY male with two Dragon flies in his mouth at a time feeding his nestlings. Only trouble is we have a hard time sitting out watching them in the evening because of all the mosquitos. No shortage of food for them this year, is there?

[Doug Martin - PA]

Bernie,

Your posts always interest me. I am a good example of the growing population in Western PA you refer to. Nice of you to have an interest.

If you could see my site now after only the 3rd year of being a landlord. "Slowly growing" may be an understatement as my site is a now booming Martin haven to over 50 birds. More than 30 of these being subbies.

I was ready to take my T-14 down because there wasn't much interest in it initially. The Excluder gourd with the Excluder II entrance was the biggest hit here. But now I have 1 pair in each side of the T-14 with unpaired birds on all the porches of the T-14 staking their claim for next season. I will be limiting the number of cavities next year so there will be a lot of overflow going somewhere.

I have almost 20 unmated subbies (most all males) in residence along with the 17 nesting pairs. It is a very noisy and active site especially when a few females float in. It gets very wild at times.

My wish for your continued success up there in Canada. I think you are also seeing the long term impact supplemental feeding and proper management can have on the overall population.

Huge difference from the days of round holes on tilting poles with massive die-offs from starvation..

Doug

[landonn]

Bernie,

I would have to agree with you about the metal housing. Metal housing is just to cold and the compartments are just to small. I agree with you about wooden housing, but don't forgot about gourds. I think at least in southern and the middle range of martins, martins are more attracted to gourds than wooden housing. Gourds seem to be the favorite here.

Landonn

[bwenger]

Hi Bernie,

We're glad to hear that you and the other landlords are having such a good year! I hope that the season continues to bring the martins good weather and many fledges. We have also had pretty good weather here, but it doesn't take much of a weather change to cause problems. We just had a weather pattern go through here a couple of weeks ago that caused some losses here, and up to 20-30% at some colonies.

The martin population in western PA has really increased recently, and the T14 does help, but the supplemental feeding that is taking place at many of the colonies are creating much healthier birds, and you know when the birds are healthy, they lay more eggs and have better success at fledging birds. An extra egg in each nest can increase the fledge rate by 20% or so.

Nest replacements are another action taken by landlords that can increase the success of a colony, so I believe it's a combination of a number of things, all of which are being stressed by the PMCA to create healthier colonies and increased martin populations.

Good luck for the rest of this year and may 2012 be even better.

Bill

[Hanover Bill]

Hi Bernie;

Great news about your success in the far north. It amazes me that the Martins are thriving so far north, but I'm sure it is in no small measure because of caring landlords like yourself.

I am one of the Western Pa, wannabes who is hopefully going to benefit from all of the hard work of landlords in this area like Bob Allnock, Roy Bauder, Doug Falk, and Bill Wenger. All of the hard work these gentlemen have put in has paid off for me this year with my first visitors. Hopefully next year I can join the ranks of official landlord.

Continued success to you this year and beyond.

Hanover Bill.

[Gary W]

Hi Bernie,

Congratulations on your success in the far north! Your post, and many others on this forum prove one thing implicitly. Martins will prosper, when the European starling is kept out of the housing! We are all indebted to the Canadian landlord, Charles Mcewen, who invented the first SREH! His discovery has literally changed the destiny of this great bird species! I think with continual efforts of landlords such as yourself, we will one day see Martins returning to their former numbers across all of North America!

Gary

[Bob Buskas]

Well said Gary, Charles McEwen entrances deserves so much credit. He single handedly changed Martin housing management. Especially with larger compartments. He deserves to be permanently recognized for that. How about it PMCA?

[Robbo]

Hi Bernie,
Sounds like you are having a terrific year! The BO-11 insulation and painting them different shades of Brown experiment is a success with only 2 Gourds ( Dark Brown and Beige). I am hoping that is because they are a new addition to the site. I did a 100% change out this season getting rid of 2 wood houses that were either hard to manage or poorly designed and built. I have now 2 T-14's ( which I love) and 8 BO-11's. I started out the season with 100% occupancy in the T-14's but am under heavy Merlin preditation. I have seen 3 kills this year but fortunately none in the last month, I think the Martin's are well protected now I have made adjustments to the Owl guards. I am seeing the same numbers now as last year after the attacks. Bernie, thanks for the advice on the Gourds Iam sure they will be a bigger attraction next year.
Rob.

[Bernie Nikolai]

The North Star we use up here is 100% wood. Here's a photo from one of my satellite sites this year.

Rob, I'm glad you are having success with the insulated (with Great Stuff) plastic gourds. If insulated, plastic gourds are an excellent house for martins in the north. It took a couple of years or so for the martins to use them freely, and they seem to choose the brown ones first. But now all the insulated gourds I have, brown as well as white, are freely used with very good success by the martins.

[ChrisM]

Thank you for taking care of our beloved martins.

Chris m Hiawatha, in Brown County, Ks