Lost my Purple Martins

[lezah]

For 25yrs I have had a very large colony of Martins every year but this year I have none, is something wrong environmentally perhaps with the weather that has changed or did something scare them off? What I can do to get them back? I am very concerned about this. I should also note that I live in the country and my neighbors are also absent of their birds.

[taxidermy lady]

Ahh so sorry, that is tough to handle. I am trying to get martins and not succeeded yet. I feel for you, has to be hard to have them for that long and then none

[Archer]

Welcome to the forum, sorry it has to be in such circumstances. You might find your answer in the following link.

http://www.purplemartin.org/main/toptwelve.html

Since you live near a wooded area, there is a possibility of owl predation.

KathyF recently experienced an owl attach and wrote about it in her blog,

http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... ht=#232128

Hope this helps,

Allan

[William A]

Lezah, I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I am not sure how I would handle that myself. Did your colony leave last year like they normally do? If everything was on time last year with their departure, it had to be a weather event that kept them from getting there. I am sure Louise will come along later and provide some guidance. Good Luck

[Ed Pace]

Sorry to hear of your sad event. As i'm sure you know that a large amount of landlords this year have experienced fewer birds this year. I for one am disappointed with this years results too. I am not sure if anyone knows at this time what has caused the shortage but I think later in time we will have a better idea, hopefully. I agree with you and others that something is wrong!

[taxidermy lady]

I think it's our stupid weather
We had 48 degrees Sat. Morning down by the river. It's June not March
Thank goodness is warmed up fast. I thought of all the babies needing fed.
2012 was a drought, we had frost in May last yr. and this yr. it was cold until middle of May! If I recall right in2012 it was in the 70's in February . It's crazy and just not right.

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

Lezah:

Looking at your profile, it says you have two houses with 150 pair. I am having a hard time visualizing your set up. If you had 150 pair and none of them returned, my guess is you had a predator problem. Do you have predator guards in place for snakes and raccoons? Did you notice any predator problems last year like feathers or wings below your housing.

Tim

[John Miller]

Hello

I am not aware of any recent environmental reason, but we're told numbers for several decades have dropped dramatically in some of the northern states. Yet, I hear almost your same question and descriptions of others in the neighborhood not having birds from around the St. Louis, Mo area, and I suspect martins populations here are at least holding steady.

Try to talk to experts in Michigan if you can. There used to be a web page, but I think it's no longer active. One experienced Michigan landlord here used to say that the population had dropped so low in the past decade or so in Michigan that most colonies had retreated to sites by water.

I don't know if you do nest checks. It's difficult to assess how many nesting pairs person has if one doesn't at least lower a few times in the nesting season to count, and hopefully also treat for mites/blowflies. Otherwise folks often see a bunch of birds out there, but in reality they only have one or two nests, and a colony should work up to 12 to 20 pairs to be assured that the colony returns. Small colonies may get a few pairs some years and some years not because martins consider the site sort of satellite, I think, to more established colonies in the area.

Also consider whether your housing is very snug, warm for the tough conditions that martin face when returning. Aluminum housing with shallow units and sometimes without subfloors -- the beloved Trio that I've used since I was a kid -- helped save the species when the housing was introduced in the 60s, but I have to wonder if it has not contributed to the martin's decline in some parts of the country. Consider starting anew with housing suited to your climate -- if you don't have already -- and as open of a site as you can, and preferably by water.

Have a place in my heart for Michigan martins -- have read in old birding books that martins a century ago were plentiful in state, and I'm hopeful will be again some day .

John Miller

[taxidermy lady]

Well my thoughts for trying a trio just changed. I will stick with the gourd rack. Thanks John

[lezah]

Tim, that was my error on the number of pairs, I am guessing that I had a total of 150 or more birds, I had so many that is was difficult to determine the number of pairs.

I live in a open landscape with just a few trees, plenty of room for the birds to dive, my wooded areas are on the back 80 acres of my property well out of reach of one of my ponds, the other pond has some trees but still easily accessible for them. The poles have guards on them so no predators can climb them.

I took a ride around the area yesterday and I saw only 1 Martin in the entire area, this is very strange. Thank you everyone for you thoughts and advice.

[eyeamtheman]

Sorry, but I cannot imagine having 50+ pairs one year and then nothing the next year without some kinda predator problems. I don't think any kind of weather phenomenon would cause this. A small reduction? Maybe, but ALL of them? No.
I believe you have had predator trouble of some kind. Hawks, owls, or something....

[DornCounty]

Well my thoughts for trying a trio just changed. I will stick with the gourd rack. Thanks John

No reason at your latitude not to use Aluminum housing. Proper aluminum housing is actually helpful in hot temps.

[Matt F.]

Well my thoughts for trying a trio just changed. I will stick with the gourd rack. Thanks John

No reason at your latitude not to use Aluminum housing. Proper aluminum housing is actually helpful in hot temps.

Indeed sir.....

[taxidermy lady]

It is hard to decide what I need because everyone has different opinions. I want to replace those two old plastic houses with something. It seems the trio is what everyone uses in my area. But the nasty birds take over them that I have seen ( unless of course you monitor it 24-7) in town. All trio's need modified to crescent holes. And larger compartments. I am sure the pest has hurt our birds if no one takes care of the trio house like it should be. All I see is strings and trash hanging from them when I drive by! Maybe I miss understood. Yeah we do not get super hot here. But it does get over a 100 degrees sometimes. Decisions, decisions, I will just have to decide from gourd rack or trio house. I will keep reading and decide before next yr.

I want martins to come to my site!!!!!!

[Carlton]

In my opinion any drop in purple martin numbers is largely due to the proliferation of the House Sparrow and Starling. Far too many people are either not knowledgeable about controlling these two SERIOUS pests or are unwilling or unable to follow through with capturing and euthanizing these flying rats. Most people do not enjoy killing but if our native, cavity nesting species are to survive it is a MUST. Personally, I wish we had some nationwide program to reduce the numbers of these invaders but I know that is not going to happen. Without our help the numbers of tropical migrants as well as year round cavity nesters will continue to decline. If HS and EUS control is initiated and maintained the purple martins, bluebirds, tree swallows etc. THRIVE. My backyard is a living example. I wonder how many people would allows mice and rats to roam throughout their house contaminating their food and clothing, chewing on wiring, spreading disease etc. etc. How different are the invasive HS and EUS? Each year I am forced to capture and eliminate 35 to 40 HS. I do not have a big problem with starlings here as I use the Excluder entrances on my Trio type houses.

Oh the other topic, I have aluminum houses in both South Florida and in Delaware. I have not noticed any significant difference in mortality between those aluminum Trio houses and plastic Troyer gourds. I have had VERY GOOD results in South Florida with the aluminum houses.

I find that the Spar o Door device is a lifesaver for maintaining a purple martin colony and for freeing the immediate area of these killers. One can fairly easily and discreetly capture and remove HS from public sites as well as backyard sites.

[taxidermy lady]

Yes Carlton, you are so right! Control S&S! They are a huge problem. I see it in town.

[Guest]

Yep, gotta' keep the rats under control. Got a pesky one this morning after him calling for girl friends over the past month or so. But I wouldn't expect a HOSP problem to cause John and his neighbor's total lack of birds this year. Very strange indeed. I would agree with the comments above that a large predator owl or hawk could cause such a widespread loss of birds. That's my two cents, but will have to defer to the experts and the info above.

[Matt F.]

I couple of things to add, if I may.
Prior to the 90s, starling resistant entrances were not available.
The closest thing to starling free housing prior to that, was 6"X6" compartment aluminum housing.
Of course now we know, larger compartments, protected with some type of starling resistant entrance, is best for the Martins.
Prior to inception of the starling resistant entrance, the Nature Society's biologists and researchers had field proven, that starlings did not like, and would mostly choose not to nest in, bright, aluminum, 6"X6" compartments.
Them knowing this, and producing housing that fit this description, kept the Martins from having to hopelessly compete against starlings, while nesting in the thousands and thousands of Trio houses put up since the early 60s.
Though there are isolated cases of starlings nesting in these houses, those cases are rare.
The huge amount of Trio houses that were sold during the unprecedented, Purple Martin campaign of the 60s, were houses that have been able to stay up, intact, and host Martins, for more than 40 years, with often zero care (and often times abuse).
So that begs the question - what would the number of Martins be today, if not for the huge influx of mostly starling-free, aluminum housing in the 60s and 70s?

[John Miller]

Sorry if I touched a nerve about Trio housing. I am of the opinion that traditional aluminum housing, including Coates and a few others such as the Heath octagon designed ones, especially 6 x 6 units, and maybe without subfloors, does not provide adequate shelter in April and early May when martins arrive in the northern states, and some years not in Missouri either. This is opinion based on some heartbreak cold snaps in April. If you've got a bunch back in early April and it snows 8 inches and temps at night are in the 20s, surely martins are better off in insulated or wooden housing, or at least good dry gourds. Trio housing can be reconfigured to deeper units, and the walls can be insulated. I manage or consult on six Trio houses right now done this way, and they fledge a lot of martins.

Another thing to consider this year in Michigan would be that indeed there were some tough cold spells in April and early May. Whether the early spring cold was worse than previous years is not clear to me, but we know it was a harsh winter with the Great Lakes frozen, so maybe the cold snaps in April were worse and many adult birds lost, but I'd have thought sub adults would have filled in some. We'd need to hear from MI landlords to get better information.

John

[William A]

I am hoping Louise will stop by today and comment on the OP's missing colony. That is very disturbing to me.