Female martin arrives here

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

The earliest ever arrival for our colony. A female martin exits a natural gourd on the 3rd level, very vocal, made many circles over the site. What a thrill to see the first one. I finished putting up all the gourds about 3 days ago. She chose a gourd with a homemade cedar tunnel with a rectangular entrance, facing the South. I wonder if she spent the night here, its possible. The rack was still lowered, so I suppose that I will not raise the gourd racks.

[M.Stephens]

Congratulations Emil! The first one is always a thrill here too! What date was your first one last year?

[Dale D]

Congratulations Emil. How early is she compared to your past season?

[GeneP]

Congratulations Emil! Sounds like you'll be getting busy real soon.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Thanks guys, the earliest arrival before this year was Jan 19, 2002. The average is about the 28th of January. Seems like Florida is also about 10 days early this year, so that seems to be true here also

The past 3 years, they showed up on or between the 23 Jan and 21 Jan

Edit: got the dates correct now!

[Jeff Robinson]

Congrats Emil! I just reopened the PMCA site to the 2013 Scout Report and saw your update there, so when opening the forum, there you were with your expanded report. Best of seasons to you - she'll bring the rest of em in! I'd be interested to hear when your next one arrives.

Jeff

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Thanks Jeff

The gourd rack was real low when the female martin used the gourd. Having the gourd racks lowered doesn't seem to bother the martins

[Doug Martin - PA]

Congrats Emil!

The fun has begun! Enjoy.

Doug

[James Strickland FL]

Way to go Emil. Great News!

[klcretired]

Congrat's Emil, I am Patiently awaiting my PM's to return, hopefully not too early but i stand Ready

[AnnieM]

Happy for you, Emil! You are east of us and your forecast is cloudy and cool, but at least you will stay above freezing. We have 3-5 nights of upper-20s and very cool days ahead of us here. So hope the PMs stay along the coast for a little longer. Have fun!

[Dave Reynolds]

Emil -- Great news to here about your new girl. I know you have been busy getting all you houses and gourds up. Hope you have a good year. (and some much needed rain from time to time)..
Dave

[rrmartins]

Congrats Emil, hope you have a great year.

[dhjohnson]

Happy news Emil!
She just wanted to make sure she got the gourd she wanted this year! We started hanging gourds today. Our new rack is starting to take shape. Everything is clean and closed up. Learned a hard lesson last year trying to start our colony by opening gourds too soon. Had a real battle with starlings and sparrows and blue birds before the martins arrived.
Best wishes for a successful martin season!

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Thanks everyone, I will try to reply by saying that we were so thrilled to see the martin, my wife and I watched it going in circles over our house, and she was squaking all the time, so very vocal.

We have been trapping the starlings, we were gone yesterday, but when we got home we had 2 starlings but we have 3 traps. We have not yet seen a sparrow. The martin probably was in the gourd when we got home yesterday.

The weather is cold, we had rain around daylight, but its supposed to be near 48 to 50 for 3 of the next 5 days, so she will probably be ok

I was watching the Houston Texans getting beat up in football playoffs, so I was not observing the martin housing late today, but I suppose that she is in there somewhere. I did raise the housing today.

This arrival is so very early for us, I really wish that it would have started about 2 weeks later, but we shall see, maybe nature is smarter than us. I will feed her if necessary.

[Tim Stover]

dog gone has it been a year already congrats! Emil don't even have a gourd up here yet hope you have a great season!

[Ed Pace]

Congratulations Emil. Do you very often get a female first? And do they usually except the first male that arrives next Ed

[marshainpuntagorda]

Congrats!!!! So happy you have Scout; still looking and waiting to hear the Martin tweet...My mom had Martins and then two days ago they left and haven't been back...strange behavior, since most Martins are dedicated to their sites...will help her monitor

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Thanks everyone. Marsha, I surely expected you to be one of the very first to get a martin. Your martins are not worried, they know that they will have a good home waiting for them when they arrive at your place.

Ed, its about even, sometimes its a female, and sometimes a male. However, there usually are about 5 males here for 2 females early in the season. The females seem to lag when it comes to large numbers. and there always seems to be more males than females. That fact may lead to some of the infantile problems where the second year males are looking for female.s

Tim, you have a lot of time yet to put up gourds...smile

dhjohnson, I always leave all of my traps and gourds open. It may be different in different parts of the country, but I try to trap all the scum birds early. They seem to nest before the martins, so I like to trap the starlings and the sparrows before the martins arrive, or at least early in the season. About the time that the martins start laying eggs, the s&s have a lull in the season, then they start looking for new housing again later in the season, the s&s have about 3 broods hers, so they keep coming back later.

Dave, we got about 3 or 4 inches of rain, so for the time being, we are in good shape moisture wise.

Thanks everyone for the kind words, the fun has begun!~

[tonyg]

Congrats Emil! She knows a good place when she sees it. Am not liking these early arrival reports. I thought last year was early for most..but like ya said, maybe mother nature knows more than us..