Flight Photos Of My Purple Martin Colony
I have a wide area flight photo of my new martin colony in northwest Louisiana showing the martins swarming around. The photo is too large to post so I ?dissected? it and have posted some smaller extrapolations. On some days in June of this year, I must have had several hundred martins socializing and investigating my housing. There were 81 pairs of martins in my colony for the first year! No telling how many martins will be nesting in 2006 unless Hurricane Katrina and Rita decimated many of them during migration. Many of us will have to wait to determine the possible impact of these hurricanes on the number of returning martins in 2006. I believe many of the martins nesting in Louisiana probably assemble at the huge Lake Ponchartrain roost in New Orleans which was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. Whether ?my? martins were there at that time no one knows.
Steve
Flight Photos Of My Purple Martin Colony
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Steve Kroenke
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Logansport
Hey Matt,
I wish I could post the entire picture of all the martins swarming around. It is awesome!
I am already planning for next martin season and just received around 24 large natural gourds from my supplier, Gourdgracious. I will be cleaning these gourds and painting them soon. I hope to attach angled 45 degree PVC couplers to many of these gourds to create more seclusion for the martins. I will be erecting some WatersEdge suites with round holes on multi-purpose poles, too. And finally, I hope to add some Trio castles with modified double nesting chambers. I may even try one of the new 12 room Trendsetter houses. I will take pictures of these housing setups and post them.
I am already getting excited about 2006. Hopefully, Hurricane Katrina and Rita did not inflict heavy losses on the migrating martins.
Good luck with your martins next year.
Steve
I wish I could post the entire picture of all the martins swarming around. It is awesome!
I am already planning for next martin season and just received around 24 large natural gourds from my supplier, Gourdgracious. I will be cleaning these gourds and painting them soon. I hope to attach angled 45 degree PVC couplers to many of these gourds to create more seclusion for the martins. I will be erecting some WatersEdge suites with round holes on multi-purpose poles, too. And finally, I hope to add some Trio castles with modified double nesting chambers. I may even try one of the new 12 room Trendsetter houses. I will take pictures of these housing setups and post them.
I am already getting excited about 2006. Hopefully, Hurricane Katrina and Rita did not inflict heavy losses on the migrating martins.
Good luck with your martins next year.
Steve
Steve those pictures make you wish you could just be standing there at
that moment. I can only imagine what it would feel like! I have a question
speaking of gourds, there has been a pair of redheaded woodpeckers in
my backyard over the last couple of weeks trying to get in my bluebird
house and trying to get in my purple martin trio house, but I have it
closed up. Should I get a woodpecker gourd and if so where would I get
one and where would be the best place to put it. I have a family of these
woodpeckers nest in a light pole down the road from me they have nested
there for many years.
that moment. I can only imagine what it would feel like! I have a question
speaking of gourds, there has been a pair of redheaded woodpeckers in
my backyard over the last couple of weeks trying to get in my bluebird
house and trying to get in my purple martin trio house, but I have it
closed up. Should I get a woodpecker gourd and if so where would I get
one and where would be the best place to put it. I have a family of these
woodpeckers nest in a light pole down the road from me they have nested
there for many years.
April McClelland
PMCA Member
PMCA Member
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Steve Kroenke
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Logansport
Hey Davlyn,
Red-headed woodpeckers will sometimes nest in bird houses but they usually excavate their own cavities. Gourds would probably not be a good cavity type for woodpeckers because woodpeckers will often peck inside their nests to obtain woodchips for the nest bottom. Woodpeckers do not build nests like most other cavity nesting birds and lay their eggs on woodchips. Gourds may not be able to withstand constant internal pecking and are probably not thick enough. I always add a layer of woodchips in the bottoms of my woodpecker boxes, but the woodpeckers still hammer on the insides.
However, I have had red-bellied woodpeckers roost in my natural gourds and even Super Gourds on a number of occasions at my previous colony site in Tallahassee, Florida. The woodpeckers were not looking for a nest site, just a place to roost. Red-bellies will readily nest in wooden birdhouses. Once I had a pair of red-bellies nesting in a wooden house nailed to a utility pole near my martin colony. The male roosts in the nest cavity at night and plays the dominant role in caring for the nest bound young. Well, his mate roosted for a while in my natural gourds until the martins arrived in force and finally chased her away.
In your situation, perhaps the red-heads are looking for a place to roost as it is too late for nesting. Maybe you could erect a wooden single unit box near your martin colony and at least one of the woodpeckers may select it for roosting. Woodpeckers WILL enlarge the entrance holes of bluebird boxes and use them for roosting and sometimes nesting! So if you open up your bluebird box, the red-heads may do some re-modeling! You could hang a Super Gourd or a regular natural gourd from your Trio house and maybe one of the woodpeckers would select it for roosting. I know red-bellies will roost in them, but I have not any experiences with red-heads.
Steve
Red-headed woodpeckers will sometimes nest in bird houses but they usually excavate their own cavities. Gourds would probably not be a good cavity type for woodpeckers because woodpeckers will often peck inside their nests to obtain woodchips for the nest bottom. Woodpeckers do not build nests like most other cavity nesting birds and lay their eggs on woodchips. Gourds may not be able to withstand constant internal pecking and are probably not thick enough. I always add a layer of woodchips in the bottoms of my woodpecker boxes, but the woodpeckers still hammer on the insides.
However, I have had red-bellied woodpeckers roost in my natural gourds and even Super Gourds on a number of occasions at my previous colony site in Tallahassee, Florida. The woodpeckers were not looking for a nest site, just a place to roost. Red-bellies will readily nest in wooden birdhouses. Once I had a pair of red-bellies nesting in a wooden house nailed to a utility pole near my martin colony. The male roosts in the nest cavity at night and plays the dominant role in caring for the nest bound young. Well, his mate roosted for a while in my natural gourds until the martins arrived in force and finally chased her away.
In your situation, perhaps the red-heads are looking for a place to roost as it is too late for nesting. Maybe you could erect a wooden single unit box near your martin colony and at least one of the woodpeckers may select it for roosting. Woodpeckers WILL enlarge the entrance holes of bluebird boxes and use them for roosting and sometimes nesting! So if you open up your bluebird box, the red-heads may do some re-modeling! You could hang a Super Gourd or a regular natural gourd from your Trio house and maybe one of the woodpeckers would select it for roosting. I know red-bellies will roost in them, but I have not any experiences with red-heads.
Steve
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Bob Rogers
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 6:48 pm
- Location: Arnold, Missouri
Steve.
Congrats on a fine year at your new site. The pics are great. People who don't host martins are missing so much. Keep the good news coming.
Congrats on a fine year at your new site. The pics are great. People who don't host martins are missing so much. Keep the good news coming.
Bob R.