For my home site: the news is not good. Had one asy pair last season successfully fledge 5 . The asy male made it back in mid May. The asy female for whatever reason did not return. The asy male endured some very harsh weather for his first 2-3wks but stuck to the site strongly. Eventually he hooked up with a skittish sy female who struggled on/off with sreh but they were consistent for a couple wks. More bad weather occurred and eventually they both disappeared. I strongly feel he followed the sy female to a new round hole house at an acreage about 1.5 mi up the road as the landowner there picked up an asy male/sy female about the same time My home site has been basically void of martins since that time despite playing dawn song/chatter daily and controlling of hosp/starling which have not been a problem. Oh well, that's the way the bee bumbles/thunder rumbles/cookie crumbles and gives me challenges for next season to bring martins back!!
For my satellite site (Purple Martin Lake Water Resource Area): The news is much better! 2 pair in 2015, 13 pr in 2016 and to date I now have 27 pairs/nests!! Nest check yesterday revealed 27 nests w/ 120 eggs and 6 hatchlings. I did lose at least 2 martins in bad weather in May and found feathers of two on ground below housing which may have been weak birds on ground that got preyed upon by something. Have had no other predator signs since 5/27/17. Below is photos of the satellite site including one with a new PMCA interpretive panel installed next to a set of bleachers for folks to watch and learn about Purple Martins. Another photo shows some martins packed onto a feeding tray during bad weather. I have fortunately been successful in training the martins to take flipped mealworms and crickets as well as feed from a tray. I truly believe I would have lost more martins in the extreme weather we had in May had it not been for supplemental feeding on a regular basis during the cold, rainy weather. Take care everyone and may your martins live long and prosper! TimG
Martin Colony History: 2017 Two (and a lone SY male) SY pairs, 5 & 4 eggs. Hatching began on 6/27 2016 Three SY Martins interested in gourds, but never nested.
I also manage 48 gourds in the town where I live through the Songbird Project. Was off to a very slow start this year, but many more came back last week in May, phew!
Don't lose heart for this year quite yet, I'm in SE Iowa and have had SY's returning this past week yet. At least you have some Martins at your satellite site if you do not get any this year at home.
My home site has been basically void of martins since that time despite playing dawn song/chatter daily and controlling of hosp/starling which have not been a problem. Oh well, that's the way the bee bumbles/thunder rumbles/cookie crumbles and gives me challenges for next season to bring martins back!!
