Early this morning June 12, 2012 I took a few roost photos of purple martins gathered around my colony. The martins were just beginning to “spread out” some from the racks, but there were still many clustered on the hanging rods. You can get a good idea of just how many martins are roosting in my colony each night. They are not good photos as I am a rather pitiful photographer! I took these photos just before a heavy rainstorm hit!
I believe we probably have 1000+ martins roosting in our two colonies each night. The martins like the Deluxe and Gemini racks the best to roost on. The martins will pack themselves inside the compact Deluxe racks on the hanging rods and get as close to the inner hub as possible. However, there are SO MANY martins trying to roost in these racks that a lot of martins end up roosting on the exposed cane pole perches. On the Gemini rack, the martins gravitate toward the bottom ring and the inside support bars, but some martins do end up on the top ring.
Roosting inside the gourd racks near the hub and under or behind the gourds provides more protection to the martins from possible owl attacks. The martins have been roosting on the top hanging rods and my cane pole perches, too because there is simply NO MORE ROOM inside the racks!
My two Trendsetters with their wide porches and dividers are covered each night with martins too. The martins are “all over the porches” and roost on the gourd hanging rods that are underneath the bottom of the houses.
I am seeing ASY and SY martins on the racks and houses and fledglings, too. This is the first season I have seen adult martins roosting on the outside on the gourd racks.
I don’t know how long this roosting behavior will last but there are huge numbers of martins here in the evenings. As long as there are still a good number of martins with nestlings, then probably some martins will continue to roost here. I suspect that many of these martins will start congregating at larger communal roosts soon.
And the danger from barred and great horned owls is still very REAL. But so far the owls have not attacked. Possibly the huge number of martins packed together all over the gourd racks and houses does not offer a single target for any owl. Perhaps the owls prefer to select an isolated prey item rather than plunge into a mass of martins. However, in the past owls have readily attack large groups of martin fledglings roosting in the open in our colonies.
Here are a few photos of martins as they are slowly stirring about. Many martins are still inside the gourd racks or covering the Trendsetter porches. We had already had some rain earlier and an even heavier thunderstom was about to hit.
Steve
