Season report, Silver Lake WA. cliffies return with martins)

[ken buker]

Even with a delayed arrival of summer, once it arrived, it was key to a very good year once again for martins on the west coast, especially for martins at my back yard colony here at Silver Lake, Washington.

This year I made available 64 cavities of varying types mounted on 6 multi-cavity racks. For those not familiar with west coast martins, historically they are mostly noted for nesting in single boxes, old starling nest in cavities in pilings or woodpecker holes in old decaying snags. More recently they’ve been attracted to small clusters of gourds placed some distance apart. That in fact is how I first attracted martins in 2004 using a single gourd on a single pole.

My colony has continued to grow each season since that single SY pair built a nest (no eggs) in late 2004.

Of the 64 cavities available, 56 contained completed nest including green leaves, but only 54 ended up with egg clusters and nestlings that later fledged. The 54 pair of martins produced a total of 255 eggs, of which 237 hatched and 224 fledged. I think maybe the late spring might have had an impact on the fertility of some early egg production since the percentage of hatched to eggs laid this year was down slightly from recent previous years.

Surprisingly, the eight empty cavities were all in my T-14. The T-14 has been a trial in progress for west coast martins. I put it up in 2009 and was quite happy to have two pair of martins occupy it. It could easily be a first for a T-14 out west. In 2010 there were four pair and in 2011 it was occupied by 6 pair of martins all successfully fledgling young.

I have moved toward managing my colony more similarly to those in the eastern part of the country. I’m using purchased commercial racks, and though originally spacing the cavities farther apart with fewer on the rack, I continue to move them closer together utilizing the racks as they were designed. My observations have convinced me that western martins are equally as social and exhibit the same types of behavior as their cousins to the east. Given the opportunity to gather and nest in sizable groups, they appear to be at their finest and in their element of pleasure.

My A rack is a small four gourd cluster on a telescoping pole that I installed in 2006. I always put it out with the first scout arrival in the spring. It has been fully occupied each year since putting it up, and it has always produced the first fledglings of the season, and this year was no exception.

My B rack started as a homemade rack with a six gourd cluster in 2007. In 2010 I replaced it with a round rack designed for 12 gourds but put only 8 on it. It was 100 percent occupied in 2010 so this year I put 12 gourds on it and again it was fully occupied, however only 11 pair incubated egg clutches.

My C rack is a AAA 16 installed for the 2008 season. I modified the arms on the rack by adding 18” of angle to each arm allowing the cavities to be placed a little farther apart. In 2008 I had 12 cavities on it, and in 2009 I experimented with 18 cavities on it and found the martins loved it. It was fully occupied each season. Next season I plan to remove the extensions and move the cavities closer together as the rack is designed.

My D rack is another round rack with 8 gourds mounted on it installed in 2009. It has been fully occupied the last two seasons, so next year I will add four more gourds to it.

The T-14 (with four gourds mounted below it) was also installed in 2009. The gourds have been occupied each season since putting it up and as mentioned earlier the T-14 has had an increase in occupancy each year.
This spring I purchased and installed a new 12 cavity rack, but put only six cavities on it. It was fully occupied this season with five pair incubating egg clutches and fledging young. Obviously next season I will add the additional six gourds.

Unfortunately, I did observe a resident red tail hawk take advantage of confused or grounded fledglings on a couple of occasions and I was unable to intervene. Late in the season I erected a scare crow to ward him away. During nest building and incubation, the martins paid little if any attention to the red tails, but once young nestlings started fledging, it was a very different story and they mobbed the red tails several times a day. The red tails did pay close attention and knew when young fledglings were returning to the colony in late evening or preparing for their morning departure and for a couple of weeks they did make the martins nervous, though the successful capture rate was infrequent.

This season was as close to ideal as one could ask for once the good weather arrived. The warmest day this season was in the high 80’s and that greatly reduced the temptation for early fledging or jumpers. I only rescued two this season and it was due primarily to matted feathers from fecal material. On the flip side, the coolest days were still near high 60’s and 70’s thus preserving the insect supply resulting in few infant mortality due to starvation.

In late July we banded 118 nestlings during a single banding session.
The last of my Silver Lake martins left the area on August 28th, There is a fir snag that was covered with fledgling martins for several days prior to leaving the area, but I observed a family of passers by as late as September 7th.

One final note of interest, as a result of my martin passion, I limbed and/or removed several trees blocking view of the colony from the porch, deck or windows at the house. By opening the area, cliff swallows returned and nested in the gable of the roof this summer. They nested there many years ago but as the trees grew and reduced open access, they disappeared. I attempted to draw them back with artificial nest cavities, but was not successful until this year. The picture clearly shows the mud outlines from the nest of years ago. The artificial cavities have been there about 10 years. This year there was five pair, in fact two nest actually were occupied twice during the season and the late nesters finally left about the same time my last martins fledged.

Ken Buker

2004 – 1 SY pair (nest but no eggs)
2005 – 3 pair
2006 – 13 pair
2007 – 20 pair
2008 – 25 pair
2009 – 34 pair
2010 – 45 pair
2011 – 54 pair

[Veronica G]

Thank you for your report Ken! It's always so interesting to read about west coast martins. You're obviously doing a great job! And I'm glad you got your cliff swallows back too!

Veronica

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Enjoyed reading your post. I especially like rack B because of the position of the wire guards, that looks like a good idea.

[trisha]

Wow! Congratulations Ken! You are doing a terrific job and are such an inspiration. Keep up the good work!

[Bob Buskas]

Great work Ken, nice to see Martins a large colony growing on the west coast. Sure would like to see you try some bungalows next year, I think the west coast Martins would love them. Keep up the good work, how far are you from the coast?

[Daniel Airola]

Hi Ken - Great report with great results. Sorry I won't be able to attend the Western Working Group meeting this year. Your weather parallels ours in Sacramento: a late start but then very mild weather through the nesting season.