Owl got my colony

John Evans · Wed Jul 09, 2014 2:18 pm

Well, an excellent season has turned horribly wrong. A little background first. My wife and I own property out in the country in which we built a weekend home. We have 3 ponds on ten acres. I have been a martin landlord on and off for 30 years. Most of the time off. I must also mention we live in a martin rich area with many amish colonies within a few miles.

I put up a Super gourd rack the year before we built the house. No takers. The year the house was built we ended up with six pairs. I think all of the construction activity helped attract them. I added a troyer system with horizontal gourds last year and another this year. The difference is that the 2 troyers are up by the house and the super system is 300 feet on the other side of the pond. All three systems were basically full this year our third year and I am planning on adding more housing for next season.

3 weekends ago I noticed feathers below the super system while concerning I didn't notice any unusual behavior out of the birds. At that time there were several young nearing fledge stage. We missed coming up the last weekend in June and arrived for a long 4th weekend last Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I noticed how quiet it was around the super system and went to investigate knowing that certainly all of the young couldn't have fledged in the last week and a half.

To my horror I saw lots of feathers and blood smeared on the outside of a few gourds, at least 3 piles of feathers below and porches pushed in. Upon
lowering the unit I inspected all of the gourds and they were empty.No signs of any birds. Many of those gourds had 4 or 5 young... All gone.

Oddly as I was raising the rack 20 or so martins were circling the unit. As I stepped away I noticed a female with a dragonfly land on her unit a peer in looking for her young to feed. That group of birds came back several times during the next few days circling and peering in the gourds. I'm assuming they were looking for their young. I can guess with the large clutches they were spending the night away and might not have known what happened. It was sad to watch that behavior.

I kept a watchful eye on the remain housing and have not seen any evidence of an owl attack. I have seen 20 or so young fledge in the last few days and it's a joy to watch. Had to fish 2 out of the pond that the mobs had driven into the water. But they were great swimmers and headed to shore almost as soon as they hit the water. One swam or fluttered at least 50 yards before shore since that pond is 3 acres .

I have noticed most of the fledged young have not returned in the evening. We still have about 5 more nests to go. Since I am back in the city I will have to wait till the weekend to see if anything else happens.

I am guessing that the troyer horizontal gourds offer a bit more protection from these attacks with the tunnels and all. I am going to replace the super gourds with troyer verticals with the tunnels for next year and hope that colony returns. But the good thing is we will be able to manage it better next season as we are going green acres and live out there full time.

One more thing is that I am basically new here but have lurked for a few years. Some much good information from such great people!
Any comments or questions are welcomed.

Louise Chambers · Wed Jul 09, 2014 2:30 pm

John,

That's rough - so sorry! Do you think it could have been a raccoon? Porches pushed in, blood on porches, feathers right below system - makes me wonder. What sort of pole guards are you using?

John Evans · Wed Jul 09, 2014 2:49 pm

I am using the guards from the PMCA. I guess it's still possible and may explain why the houses near our house have not been touched. I know the coons are in the front pond past the tree line about 50 feet from that house cause we have fresh water clam shells on the banks all the time.

Emil Pampell-Tx · Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:01 pm

I have had owls attack our martins, and I never saw any blood. Also, owls usually eat their prey on a nearby tree limb or fence post, with feathers on the ground below the limb. I surely do think that you have racoons, and you possibly need a better predator guard

John Evans · Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:17 pm

Thanks Emil
Here is the one I'm using..
http://shop.purplemartin.org/Quick_Rele ... tails.aspx

Maybe a racoon was able to climb around it?

Louise Chambers · Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:47 pm

If you have the top of the guard 4 ft above ground, raccoons should not be able to bypass the guard. If it's lower than 4 ft, a large raccoon might be able to get past it - check the height of the guard. We put them up at head height, above the winch, etc.

John Evans · Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:49 am

Thanks Louise. Will check this weekend. I believe it may be lower than that.

John Evans · Thu Jun 04, 2015 7:04 pm

Sorry for the re-activation of my post from last year but I wanted to report the rack that was decimated by a predator last year now has 4 pairs that are attempting to nest. I put it back up this year just for the heck of it and eant to move it but ran out of time so didn't move it. I assumed it was not going to attract any Martins, but to my suprise there are new ones (I am assuming that are new birds settling in).. Mostly SY birds. Just an FYI for those have suffered colony decimation..There might be hope for colony re-establishment

wastrox · Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:27 pm

Good for you John! I'm hoping you have super duper predator guards in place this year.

DebA · Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:51 pm

How horrible. Last year. I didn't catch the old date and thought wow he already has fledges in Ohio? I am glad you reactivated. Learned signs of coons. I have the same guards on my systems but have always put them high where I am basically on my tippy toes to replace them and latch. I am 5' 6. Well...maybe down to 5'5 now. Sigh.

Good luck the rest of the year. Glad you have returnees in that system.

Deb