I kinda feel sorry for this poor purple martin decoy. He has been raked by the talons now by three hungry raptors and he is still sitting pretty on his garden stake at the periphery of my neighbor Bob’s colony! He’s doing exactly what he is supposed to do! I do like him and so do the martins he has possibly saved! He is our number one raptor deflector in our northwest Louisiana martin colonies!
His first introduction to the world of raptors happened on February 21, 2020 when a female sharp-shinned hawk went for him rather than continue chasing a female purple martin in Bob’s colony. The hawk gave his back a thorough workout and left scratches on it. But he was still perched proudly on his garden stake!
Then on April 9, 2020 an even larger Accipiter, a female Cooper’s hawk flew over Bob’s colony and several martins panicked and bolted directly underneath her. She decided to ignore them and went for old slowpoke sitting on the garden stake. Again he felt the wrath of a raptor’s talons and this hawk really tried to tear him off that stake! But no luck and she finally left.
And now on April 20, 2020 he got an introduction to the fastest raptor that attacks our martins each season. As hundreds of martins fled for their lives while emitting alarm screams, a merlin, an immature male or a female (brown on the back), came down like a jet fighter from the southwest and guess who got raked again by the talon’s of a raptor! Yes, my favorite martin decoy sitting on his garden stake near Bob’s colony! Poor fella and I know he must think the whole world of raptors has it in for him!
The merlin hit him hard but did not hang on and quickly climbed high up over Bob’s colony while the martins were climbing even higher. No chance to catch them so the merlin sped north while several brave male martins gave chase and even made several mobbing runs at the merlin.
He may be the unluckiest purple martin decoy in our two colonies but there are some lucky real martins that may have been saved! Other martin decoys have met the Grim Reaper this season too but the unluckiest one has met the most!
Here are two photos of the unluckiest purple martin decoy in our colonies. I have posted them once before but he has done such a good job deflecting raptors away from our real martins that I want to give him some more recognition. One photo shows him sitting pretty on his garden stake and the other is a close up of his back after that sharp-shinned hawk gave it a work over on February 21, 2020. I also included another photo of one of my martin decoys showing how I attached it to a garden stake. I drill about a 3/8 inch hole in the bottom and then push a garden stake up into the decoy. This makes a tight fit and so far no hawk has been able to pull a decoy off. You may have to rotor out the hole some to get a garden stake or whatever type you use inside the decoy.
