My Purple Martin Colony Is Flourishing
My purple martin colony is flourishing and Bob and I are being overrun with martins. I have never seen anything like it. As of March 22, 2006, I have between 80 and 85 ASY pairs and this either meets or exceeds my grand total of 81 pairs for 2005. Bob probably has around 100 pairs at this time. ASYs continue to pour in and the SYs will start arriving in late March with most coming during April and early May. This will be my second year at my new martin colony site and it appears I will attract well over 100 pairs of martins. This evening we had probably close to 50 new arrivals which are mostly migrants. But I am seeing many ASY males remain and try to establish territory in our colonies. Last evening was a madhouse with probably 100 new martins in our colonies!
Our satellite martin colonies are doing well too and all are well populated.
It appears that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have apparently had little negative impact on the martin population in our area. I was a little concerned that perhaps some our martins may have perished by these storms, but perhaps not and that is good.
This season I am offering 200 cavities and all have round holes So far, starlings have been almost non-existent though I did shoot one about three weeks ago when he flew over. I got him with my 12 gauge shotgun! I don?t worry about starlings.
Today we installed my two new Lone Star houses: 16 room Goliad with porch dividers added; 8 room San Jacinto. I am looking forward to seeing how the martins react tomorrow. Several martins were already visiting the houses this evening at roosting time. The Goliad is my favorite Lone Star house and the four tier system is so good looking, particularly when I add porch dividers.
My natural gourds that maximize vertical/horizontal depth continue to be popular with martins. I am using five vertically deep woodpecker gourds and four are occupied. I am using six horizontal gourds with offset holes cut in necks and five are occupied. I am using 34 funnel gourds with entrance hole cut at neck end or a PVC coupler in attached and 22 are being used. I am looking forward to seeing how my 16 Troyer horizontals, which are similar to my funnel gourds, compare in occupancy levels.
The male martins should start dawn singing any morning now. They are still emitting their early morning nocturnal vocalizations, particularly the gurgling territorial/mate reinforcement call that ends with the ?kreek?.
Early this morning I heard an ominous vocalization near Bob?s colony: a barred owl was hooting. The owl was apparently sitting in some sweet gum trees several hundred yards from Bob?s ?noisy? martin colony and I rushed over there and the owl flew away. I found no evidence of predation but the owl may be back. Those early morning vocalizations are so maladaptive when owls are nearby!
Accipiter hawks and merlins ?visit? all the time and today I saw a male Cooper?s and a female sharp-shinned hawk, both of which were trying to sneak up on our colonies but the martins saw them in plenty of time. Also today, three migratory merlins streaked overhead but all the martins were airborne and above the danger. The merlins continued north.
Stay tuned for more updates. Hope everyone is having a great martin season.
Steve
My Purple Martin Colony Is Flourishing
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Steve Kroenke
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Logansport
Hey April,
Yes we are amazed and excited by the number of martins so far this year. We could probably have over 500 pairs of martins but that would just be too many for one location! I have no idea what will happen beginning in April when the SYs return. We had a huge number nesting in our colonies in 2005. We are also pleased that our satellite colonies are thriving, too. Hope your colony is doing well, too. Keep the Forum posted!
Steve
Yes we are amazed and excited by the number of martins so far this year. We could probably have over 500 pairs of martins but that would just be too many for one location! I have no idea what will happen beginning in April when the SYs return. We had a huge number nesting in our colonies in 2005. We are also pleased that our satellite colonies are thriving, too. Hope your colony is doing well, too. Keep the Forum posted!
Steve
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Donna - TX
- Posts: 889
- Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2006 6:44 pm
- Location: Texas/Pearland
Hi Steve,
I'm glad to hear you are doing so well. I am also glad to hear you just put up more houses. I just ordered yesterday 8 more super gourds because I have so many martins some are sleeping in the trees. I hope they will be ok before they get here or move onto another site.
I'm glad to hear you are doing so well. I am also glad to hear you just put up more houses. I just ordered yesterday 8 more super gourds because I have so many martins some are sleeping in the trees. I hope they will be ok before they get here or move onto another site.
Donna Gillbee
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Steve Kroenke
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Logansport
Hey Donna,
Thanks! Martins are already using my new Lone Star houses. This evening we had more martins trying to roost as our weather has been rather cold and windy the last few days. Sounds like you are having many martins at your site! Hope you have a great martin season.
Steve
Hey Mike,
Thanks! Bob and I have discussed that issue. Surely numerous martin colonies were lost due to the hurricanes and many folks probably were not able to erect new housing. So would martins in the New Orleans area disperse to our area in northwest Louisiana? I guess that would be about 200 + miles. But perhaps so. It would be interesting to see if martin colonies north of the hurricane devastation are experiencing significant increases in birds. Even folks over in Alabama and northwest Florida may get some of these birds, particularly from the colonies located on the Mississippi coast.
Steve
Thanks! Martins are already using my new Lone Star houses. This evening we had more martins trying to roost as our weather has been rather cold and windy the last few days. Sounds like you are having many martins at your site! Hope you have a great martin season.
Steve
Hey Mike,
Thanks! Bob and I have discussed that issue. Surely numerous martin colonies were lost due to the hurricanes and many folks probably were not able to erect new housing. So would martins in the New Orleans area disperse to our area in northwest Louisiana? I guess that would be about 200 + miles. But perhaps so. It would be interesting to see if martin colonies north of the hurricane devastation are experiencing significant increases in birds. Even folks over in Alabama and northwest Florida may get some of these birds, particularly from the colonies located on the Mississippi coast.
Steve
Steve, that is an interesting question. Certainly it would seem a martin is perfectly capable of wandering 200 miles in short order. On the other hand, after catasptrophic population losses in an area due to weather for example, they seem famously slow to recolonise the affected region.
Mike Scully
Mike Scully
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Eddie McKnight
- Posts: 189
- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:02 am
- Location: Moncks Corner, SC
Steve, how about post some pix of your and Bob's housing? Start a new thread at the top, though. It would be nice to see lots of successful colony pictures.
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Steve Kroenke
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Logansport
Hey Eddie,
I did have one earlier posting that shows an overall picture of my 2006 set-up. My colony composition has changed some with the addition of new housing. But I hope to post more photos of my colony soon. I will check with Bob about photographing his colony.
Hope you have a great martin season.
Steve
I did have one earlier posting that shows an overall picture of my 2006 set-up. My colony composition has changed some with the addition of new housing. But I hope to post more photos of my colony soon. I will check with Bob about photographing his colony.
Hope you have a great martin season.
Steve