Huge Influx of SY Purple Martins And Short Update

[Steve Kroenke]

Huge Influx of SY Purple Martins And Short Update

April is the main month for SY purple martins to arrive at our northwest Louisiana martin colonies. At first I did not see many SY martins and perhaps the devastating drought of 2011 had severely reduced their numbers by causing the starvation of many nestlings and fledglings.

However, a huge influx of SY male martins in particular has arrived this last week in April. We have many SY males trying to move in and they are fighting among themselves and with the established residents for territory. Whether we will have as many SY pairs this season as last year remains to be seen.

In the last few days many SY pairs have fought their way into gourd racks and houses and gained cavities. The dominant ASY martins have tried their best to hold onto multiple cavities and some are still succeeding. I have some true tyrants that spend nearly all their time driving off other martins!

With so many late arriving SY males looking for nests, there may be many incidents of infanticide this season. The males are already trying to get into nests with eggs/babies and the permanent residents are viciously attacking these males.

My martin pair total is increasing and I believe I now have over 300 pairs and Bob my neighbor probably has around 150 pairs. So we probably have between 450 and 500 pairs of martins at this time. We can still attract breeding pairs through April and well into May.

Here are some occupancy level stats by a few of my housing systems; any vacancies are being dominated by resident pairs:

My new 24 gourd Gemini system is almost full I believe with possibly 23 pairs.

I have three AAA 16 racks with 16 gourds each. Two have 15 pairs and one is full.

My 24 gourd Super System has 20 pairs.

My two round racks with 12 gourds each are full.

One of my 18 gourd Deluxe racks is full and the others are nearly full.

My multi-purpose pole system with two modified Trio M-12s (12 compartments) and four Troyer Horizontals is full.

Our martin colonies are still being menaced by migratory merlins and yesterday we had two attacks by super fast flying females. Our martins went berserk and emitted blood curdling screams of terror as these falcons came through like jet fighters. One falcon was closing in on a martin way out in the nearby open pasture and I was unable to see what happened in the end. I have never in my life seen so many merlins and they have harassed our martin colonies from mid-March to the present. The merlin population is growing in number and fortunately for our martins these raptors do NOT nest in Louisiana and mainly breed in Canada. I have observed MANY attacks this season and only one was successful that I witnessed. In all others the martins saw the merlins coming and were able to out maneuver these incredibly fast flying raptors with sharp banking actions to the side and downward. This merlin threat may continue until mid-May when all should finally be gone.

Most martins are now incubating eggs and a few pairs are feeding young. There are hundreds of eggs in the nests at this time.

The male martins are still dawn singing “like crazy” and each morning the vocalizations are LOUD as martins seem to have “screaming matches” with each other! Some martins dawn sing at their cavities while most leave the housing to sing high in the sky.

I hope all the rain we have had earlier will produce many dragonflies for the martin babies as there will be a huge number this season. In 2011 many martin nestlings and fledglings starved to death because the drought devastated the flying insect population.

I hope everyone is having a great martin season.

Steve

[Jeff Robinson]

Thanks for the update Steve, and congrats on rebuilding your colony after last year's devastation! As usual, your posts are informative, objective and spot-on!

Jeff

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for those kind remarks!

We couldn't have re-built our two martin colonies without the help of great friends who came to the rescue after the tornado.

The martins did re-nest after the storm though many of their babies starved because of the drought.

More SY males are at our two colonies today and fighting has been intense! The males are desperate to establish territory and attract mates.

We had two more merlins come over today and two magnificent peregrine falcons, all migrants heading north. The martins went crazy for a few minutes until the danger passed then they all came back to their nests.

Steve

[akp]

I have room for a few up here in NE Oklahoma. Have not seen a single subadult yet.

[CurtWelling]

Sounds like you need to more housing up, Steve. Wow, your occupancy numbers are incredible, I've never approached that level.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey AKP,

Many of our SYs have returned during the latter part of April and we had a bunch of them trying to roost this evening. There were probably close to 50 SYs this evening and many are most likely migrants that will be moving on tomorrow.

If your area was drought stricken in 2011 and many martin young died of starvation, then your SY martin numbers may be lower this year. We had a severe drought in 2011 and there were fewer numbers of SYs coming during most of April. There has been a big surge of SYs in the last week.

Hopefully you will see SYs in your area during May. Good luck.

Steve

Hey Curt,

I live in a martin rich area, my location is open, my colony is starling and sparrow free, and I use good housing. So the martins have a great place to live! My colony has experienced incredible growth.

I think I have enough housing right now! In fact, I am thinking about downsizing my martin colony in the future. Though I enjoy having a super large martin colony, it is a lot of work with so many housing systems to maintain.

I hope you are having a great martin season.

Steve

[tonyg]

Hey Steve thanks for the update..Was wondering where they were all at..Had my first show up on the 23rd, but not many here at all. Did a nest check the 24th and counted 67 quality nest and another 12 with potential.. But still have some new gourds to fill up, so send them this way..Glad to hear your #s are good..Tony

[Scott D.- La]

Steve,
Good new's on the SY bird's. I have seen plenty of them however, have no room for them. When I shot the pair of Starling's the other day, the gourd was claimed within a hour with a Subbie pair. I have noticed some intense battles for a very few empty cavities by Subbies.

[akp]

We were definitely drought stricken. I had about 50% mortality. Still figured I'd see a few. It appears that I've grown by about 8 pairs so far....All adult birds though.

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

Steve:

Glad to hear you are reporting an influx of SY's to your site.

This is the first year at our new location where I have not heard any dawnsinging in the early morning hours. Kind of disheartening. The three nearby lakes are such an attractant for martins, I believe they would rather live in a slum house next to the water, of which there are many, than select nicer housing a few miles away.

Tim

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Tony,

I don't know if we have fewer SYs or they are just late getting here this season. Today more SY males are here and they are getting into all kinds of mischief! I did pick up some more SY pairs today as these martins actually fought the dominant ASY tyrants and got empty gourds. I have still have empty cavities, but all are being dominated by ASY pairs.

Did your area have any kind of drought that caused many nestlings/fledglings to starve?

I would assume that many of your SY martins arrive in May and you could possibly even attract breeding martins into early June. We almost never have any pairs that are successful if they start nesting in June. They rarely finish the cycle.

Steve

Hey AKP,

Perhaps you will start seeing SY martins as May progresses. Your drought may have diminished the SY numbers for your area.

Steve

Hey Scott,

I guess you need to expand your martin colony! Of course all those single SY males will be pressuring your established pairs and you may start seeing small martin nestlings on the ground. I believe you had a major problem one year with SY males throwing babies out.

I just hope there are plenty of dragonflies for both our colonies this season. We did get plenty of rain earlier.

Steve

Hey Tim,

I was really hoping you would attract martins to your new colony site this season. You probably still have all of May to attract some martins since there are colonies nearby. Martins have strong site fidelity and often keep returning to old worn out, tree encroached and sparrow infested houses year after year.

Good luck.

Steve