It was a beautiful spring day here in Faulkner County, Arkansas. Around 9:00 heard urgent martin alarm calls from high up and martins bolted and were flying very fast. Suddenly saw a merlin falcon coming in at full speed about 100 feet up from the east. It stooped down with flickering wings and missed a female martin below it. However, it then turned its attention to a male martin fleeing at top speed that was still below it. It made at least three powered stoops with flickering wings at the male martin, which at the last second swerved with a powerful turn arcing away with impressive speed and agility. The martin finally gained a height advantage and climbed away from the merlin, which eventually stopped the chase and soared slowly away to the northeast. When adult swallows reach an altitude advantage when being chased by falcons they almost always escape.
The martins returned to their housing, but remained very alert and were easily startled to flying away when they would hear alarm calls by other types of birds. Later saw the flock mobbing a female sharp-shinned hawk up high, but the accipiter hawks aren’t foolish enough to try to chase martins up high with their rounded wings, unlike that merlin. They are much better at ambushing martins from below treetop level. Fortunately, there was no more hawk activity today, and the martins were swarming all over their housing. Adult males are losing extra gourds they have been hogging, and newly arrived females have their choice of resident males.
To date I have lost three adult martins that I know of. I found one black male dead on the ground beneath a gourd rack, one female was dead inside of a gourd that had been taken over by starlings and I’m sure they killed her, and I saw a male cooper’s hawk fly from the ground with a black male the other evening right at dusk when the weather was bad and rainy. One of my juvenile peacocks did run toward the hawk with raised hackles and he would have attacked the hawk had it not flown. Martins are really pouring in here to central Arkansas. I have yet to notice a subadult male. I saw the first martin egg laid on 04/16. Most pairs are just now starting to build. I am slowly replacing my old Chuck Abare-style gourd racks with Gemini racks. The martins love those with the Troyer horizontal gourds with SREH.
To top off a great day outside I also captured a swarm of honeybees that came from my hive. It was a huge, early spring swarm that hopefully will pay sweet dividends later this year. I plan on adding one more Gemini gourd rack after the first of May to pick up mainly subadult pairs. With the increased cavities this year I should easily pass 100 pairs. I have been limited to around 85 pairs the past few years because that is how many cavities I offered. Wishing everyone a great year and it is great reading from all of the newcomers on the forum. – Kent Justus / Mt. Vernon, Arkansas
Martins Escape Merlin and Sublime Day in Arkansas
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Darryl Holden
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2003 9:59 pm
- Location: Alabama/Meridianville
Hey Kent! Hope your doing good! Things are really picking up here to. I had a sharp-shinned hawk giving me problems at the start of the year but has moved on for now. No subbies here either that I know of. My 60 gourds are almost full so it should be a great year! Let me know if you plan on coming down again to see Jerral Johnson's colony, we can plan to go together. Hope you have a great season!
