Photos Of My Purple Martin Colony For 2013

[Steve Kroenke]

Photos Of My Purple Martin Colony For 2013

For the 2013 purple martin season, I have largely kept the same housing composition with one main modification. I have replaced a system with two modified Sunset Inns comprised of 16 compartments and 12 Super Gourds and Troyer Verticals with a new gourd rack of 24 Troyer Horizontals with tunnels/porches.

My colony consists of 22 systems including 18 gourd racks of various styles and sizes, two multi-purpose poles with two modified Trio M-12s and two WatersEdge houses, and two 12-room Trendsetters. There are 344 gourds: Super Gourds, Excluders, Troyer Horizontals with cling plates and with tunnels/porches, and Troyer Verticals with tunnels/porches. I have six aluminum houses as mentioned previously and these comprise 44 compartments. So my total number of cavities for 2013 is 388. In 2012 I had 392 so a minor decrease of four cavities.

All housing has round holes, pre-nests of pine straw, and can be raised via a brake winch or rope/pulley system. I must admit that I prefer the winch over the rope/pulley and may eventually convert to all winches.

Every system is protected from rat snakes with a net trap made from bird netting. These traps readily catch most rat snakes that try to climb the poles and we have caught some huge ones.

In 2012 I attracted 347 pairs of martins and raised a BUNCH of youngsters. We had plenty of rainfall earlier in the season and the parent martins were able to find sufficient food to feed their young. In fact 2012 was the best purple martin season I have ever had. In 2011 we had a disastrous drought that resulted in a huge decline in flying insects, particularly dragonflies and many martin nestlings/fledglings starved to death.

Here are some photos of my purple martin colony for 2013:

This photo shows a section of my colony site.



This photo shows another section of my colony.



This photo shows yet another section.



This photo shows the entire colony.



Steve

[MidTNJerry]

That's very impressive Steve. I sure wouldn't want to be a dragonfly flying through your yard. :-)

[James Strickland FL]

WOW! Now that is impressive!

[Kevin-GA]

That's amazing Steve, I can only imagine the time and money you have invested in that size colony. Countless hours of cleaning out gourds, adding nest material, conducting nest checks and monitoring. I admire your dedication and devotion to the species, the entire setup is first class!

[JJ Jones]

Steve,

What a colony you have ! It looks fantastic and I know that you really put forth a lot of effort & time maintaining it. Anyway, I was wondering if you were to draw a perimeter line around your colony, what do you suppose the length & width would be ? Thanks !

[Craig Haddox]

Steve, your site look's great. Was wondering if you had any martins at your satellite colony's yet. Good luck with all of your martins this year.

[DornCounty]

thanks steve.. I always enjoy your reports.

[barry resvick]

Steve there are probably alot of reader wondering how long it takes to do your nest checks and changes.Your dedication is an inspiration to us all.Very nice site.

[Keith]

Steve, Just beautiful. It amazes me as to how the Purple Martin could ever find which gourd is theirs in a set-up like this. But I know their little GPS works.
Keith

[Steve Kroenke]

I appreciate all those kind remarks about my martin colony. It has definitely grown since I first started it way back in 2005! Having a large colony does take a lot of time to take care of it, but I enjoy it for the most part. I conduct "select" nest checks but don't do the whole colony. I mainly check for possible problems.

I guess the colony is located in a square about 120' x 120'. All the systems are spaced apart anywhere between 15' and 24'.

Bob my neighbor says it looks too cluttered! And there is some truth to that! But the martins seem to like the design just fine and they don't get too confused. Bob's martin colony is linear with two lines of housing that meet to create a big L in his front yard.

I haven't seen any martins at our various satellite colonies, but we don't visit them that frequently except for the "dump colony" which is only about three miles away.

This morning I counted ten martins at our two colonies. The males often follow any females that may go back and forth between our sites.

Steve

[daveh]

Steve, looks real good. Since you've been thru a tornado do you get more nervous now when storms are approching and do you try and lower all your systems or just pray real hard that nothing happens? What are your average heights of your systems and are you using some shorten poles from the storm?

dave

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Dave,

Yes, I do get a little paranoid when I see potential violent weather on the radar! Our area of northwest Louisiana is on the edge of "tornado alley".

I have lowered systems when I had plenty of warning that potential bad weather was approaching.

I now have all my housing systems lower down and the martins could care less! My highest system is around 14 feet and my gourds/houses are anywhere from 14 to 8 feet off the ground. Yes, I shortened many of the poles after the tornado as these poles were bent near the ground. Never again will have gourd racks or houses more than 14 feet high and height is not an issue for my colony because of the open location.

Just a little update...

I counted 13 martins coming in to roost this evening at both our colonies.

Steve

[Waydog]

Awesome! What a subdivision! I know you've probably been worn out with this question, but I gotta know, how did you start? Did you put up a couple houses in 2005, as you stated when you started colony, then realize" hey, this is gonna work", and then add each year or what? very curious about your story...and if youve posted it before just link me to it! Have enjoyed your posts over the last year ive been a member!

[jr 2]

looks great; wish i had that much room;;jr2

[tonyg]

As usual Steve, still impressive! One of these days when I grow up,I wanna be just like you! Hope you and Bob have a successful Martin season.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Waydog,

I got started with "raising" purple martins way back in the early 60s when I was just a young boy. I lived in north Florida and had several martin colonies including one super one of 150+ pairs. I have always been interested in wildlife.

I retired to northwest Louisiana and started my current martin colony in 2005. I attracted a whopping 81 pairs my first season! I live next door to my good friend Bob Bozeman who has had a super martin colony out here since 2002. I attracted the overflow of martins from his colony. We had around 500 pairs of martins between us in 2012.

My current martin colony has flourished though we have many Accipiter hawks, merlins, barred and great horned owls that attack and try to hunt the martins. During the major hawk migration time in March and April, our two colonies are often attacked numerous times daily by Accipiter hawks and merlins.

Martins are plentiful in northwest Louisiana and anyone can usually have a large martin colony provided the location is reasonably open and the martins are protected from competitors and predators.

So purple martins have been a big part of my life since the early 1960s!

Steve

[Waydog]

Approx. 500 pairs between you two...wow, I cant imagine that! But I can imagine the predators thinking they have a field day waiting! I say that im not wanting to go anymore than I have now, as far as setup, wich is 4 gourds and a 4 compartment house. But if that fills up this year, only my second year....then I know me! Ill probably expand! !! Thanks for the reply! intersting stuff!

[bluetick]

Steve I enjoyed your post and commend you on a beautiful sit up for your martins. Dave