My purple martin colony in northwest Louisiana is doing very well as of April 5, 2020. It’s hard to determine the number of martins at this time but it is in the hundreds.
I have 17 systems up: 15 gourd racks and two Trendsetter houses. There are 352 plastic gourds including Troyer Horizontals with tunnels/porches and with cling plates, Troyer Verticals, PMCA Excluders and Super Gourds. I have a 12 room and 16 room Trendsetter comprising 28 compartments. The total number of cavities is 380.
I conservatively estimate that all the systems except the 12 room Trendsetter are averaging about 12 pairs of martins each and the Trendsetter has 11 pairs that I have observed. So at this time I have probably around 200+ pairs of martins in residence.
For the first week in April, this is about normal and most of the ASY martins that nested in my colony previously are probably here. However, there are still more ASY males trying to move into my colony. The problem for these males is aggressive dominant ASY males are already controlling multiple cavities and will not give them up without a vicious battle to determine which male is stronger! Some of the new males are winning these battles while many others are not. Eventually most of these dominant males will relent and new males can move in to the vacant cavities, particularly when their mates finally select the pair’s “official” nest site and focuses nesting activity around that cavity.
I saw my first SY male martin on March 29 and he promptly secured an empty cavity and a mate the same day! He actually defeated an ASY male that was trying to dominate several Troyer Horizontals! I believe there is at least one more SY male that is using another vacant gourd. Most of the SY martins return to our northwest Louisiana colonies during April and continue well into May. So there is plenty of time for many of the remaining vacant cavities to be taken by SYs and some ASYs.
This morning April 5 Bob and I visited four of our satellite martin colonies in this area. We saw mixed results relative to martin numbers. At two colonies the martins were experiencing what I call is “hawk fright” behavior. At one colony which has been thriving not a single martin could be seen on the houses or flying above. However, there were some martins inside and when I walked underneath the houses, several flew out at a high rate of speed and disappeared high in the sky. When martins are attacked frequently at their colony, they often quit socializing and stay away from the housing until roosting time. This colony is hit every year by Accipiter hawks, including resident Cooper’s hawks later on when the martin fledglings are out. Another colony was showing hawk fright behavior too but not as extreme as the other one. The two other colonies were doing fine with martins peacefully gathered around their housing.
Here are some photos of my martin colony.
