Our two personal purple martin colonies are doing well and we are probably pretty much “normal” relative to martin numbers at this time of the year. I believe I have between 200 and 250 pairs of martins in residence at this time and my neighbor Bob has around 150 pairs or more. We usually attract about 500+ pairs of martins each season.
By mid-April in our area nearly all the ASY martins probably have returned and others that show up may have lost their old housing or the housing is infested with starlings and house sparrows. Right now there are some ASY males still trying to fight their way into our colonies.
SY males are beginning to show up more though there does not seem to be as many so far as in previous years about this time. SY pairs tend to make up about a quarter of our colony numbers on average so they are important in the final total for the year. Some years nearly a third of my colony size is composed of SY pairs. SY martins will nest as late as the last of May in our area but by mid-May the chances are significantly lower than in April or early May. We often see a nice surge in SY males during the last two weeks of April.
This year martin domination behavior is severe and I have many DICTATORS in my colony! These aggressive martin pairs try to control multiple gourds/house compartments and keep other martins OUT. Martins that are looking for territory must be persistent and fight viciously these dominating martins if they want to breed successfully. Male martins may dominate to reduce intraspecific competition for females and provide females with more choices. Plus both male and female martins seem to like several cavities to control initially as part of their territorial instinct and an aggressive pair will actively fight off other martins that try to move in. Males fight other males and females fight other females in savage conflicts inside the cavities and even on the ground.
Starlings have been a minor issue for our colonies and not a single starling has established any territory or interacted with the martins. I have shot four male starlings since the beginning of February when they flew slowly over our colonies and have had great success with my isolated “trap houses” placed on a single pole located about 150 yards north of Bob’s colony in an open pasture. I have attached four PMCA cavity box traps to an old gourd hub that raises/lowers with a rope and pulley. Starlings check into this “hotel” but don’t check out alive! There are so many martins in our colonies that inquisitive starlings may avoid the housing and are drawn to the isolated trap houses; this system really attracts starlings that are flying around the area. I have now caught 12 starlings: 10 males and two females. During the breeding season male starlings have a blue or blue/gray color at the base of their yellow beaks and females have mainly a pinkish one or sometimes cream colored one. Remember: boys blue and girls pink!
I have not shot or trapped a single house sparrow so far and this is typical for our martin colonies. We just don’t have many sparrows “way out in the country” where we live. But I may shoot several males later on.
ASY male martins have finally started dawn singing in earnest and I enjoy and don’t enjoy these vocalizations. The males that stay at the colony are extremely loud and the males often perch on gourd/house porches and the gourd racks while singing. This behavior attracts hunting barred and great horned owls and male martins can be easily caught while perching in the open and advertising their location to these ferocious martin killers. Martins that leave the colony and climb high in the sky to dawn sing are safe from owls. Each morning I am out in our colonies beginning around 5:00 am and patrol the area. Our colony sites are partially illuminated by security lights and any owl can easily see me walking around. Usually owls will not fly into our colonies with me directly inside one of them.
Martins continue to nest build though many pairs have about completed though leaves are still being added to the nests. A good number of females actively used a “mud puddle” in Bob’s backyard to collect mud to build dams. However, most female martins have not used mud in their nests this season.
April is big month for migratory Accipiter hawks (Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks), merlins (small falcons) and occasional peregrine falcons to fly over or attack our martin colonies. Almost every day now several of these raptors come over and I have seen some spectacular attacks by Accipiters and merlins on our martins. My 11 martin decoys placed on eight to ten foot tall poles around our colonies have helped to deflect the attacks on real martins to the decoys but not always. I have observed two male martins killed by Cooper’s hawks that dived from great heights on terrorized martins that probably had no idea where the hawk was coming from. I broke up one of the attacks but the martin was dead; in the other case the hawk carried the martin off. But I have managed to thwart a good number of attacks by Accipiter hawks that were circling high over our colonies by standing out in the open directly under the hawks and they did not dive down. I also patrol our colonies early in the mornings and in the evening at roosting time to hopefully minimize those deadly low level attacks in dim light conditions. But these hawks will still sometimes try to sneak into our colonies and grab an unwary martin.
Merlins have been coming over almost daily now and some are trying to catch the martins. Fortunately none that I have observed have been successful so far and the martins escaped with incredible banking actions, dives and climbs. The most spectacular attack I observed and Bob was there too was by a female merlin that chased martins all over the sky and “ringed up” until out sight as she pursued several martins that were flying for their lives. I have never in all my life seen anything like this attack. The merlin was climbing rapidly in a circle and the martins were climbing ahead of the falcon. I used my binoculars as long as I could but never saw what finally happened. I do believe the martins escaped because the martins were out in front and climbing faster than the merlin. Martins are strong flyers!
Our satellite martin colonies are doing well now but most suffered from Accipiter hawk attacks earlier. The martins were so terrorized that when we visited the colonies the martins were often gone or circling high overhead and afraid to come down. We even saw Cooper’s hawks land on the houses or circle overhead. We currently have five satellite martin colonies and all are well occupied each season with martins.
Here are three photos taken this morning April 15, 2016 of my martin colony:
One section.
Another section.
And another section.
Steve