Purple Martin Update…May 4, 2016

[Steve Kroenke]

Purple Martin Update…May 4, 2016

As of May 4, 2016 my purple martin colony and my neighbor Bob’s site are THRIVING; we surely have over 500 pairs of martins between our two colonies. I believe I have between 300 and 350 pairs and Bob probably has around 200. I currently have 404 cavities available this season: five Trendsetter houses comprising 80 compartments and 374 plastic gourds including Troyer Horizontals with tunnels/porches and with cling plates, Troyer Verticals, Super Gourds and Excluder Gourds.

SY male martins are arriving in larger numbers and they are causing significant stress to the permanent residents. These males constantly try to enter the residents’ nests and take over the territory, particularly when the rightful occupants are absent. Vicious fights are occurring daily with terrible battles ensuing inside the cavities and all the way to the ground. When fights take place inside the nests with eggs, on occasion damage can occur to the eggs. Plus in cavities with entrances low down eggs can even be pushed out during these battles.

At this time only a few of my martin pairs have newly hatched young as many of the martins are a little late in their breeding cycle. However, these tiny babies are highly vulnerable to infanticide behavior by single SY males looking for territory and mates. The parents must GUARD their featherless babies almost constantly and establish a synchronized feeding pattern where one parent remains in the nest until the other returns with food. Unguarded small featherless nestlings can be thrown out in a matter of minutes by SY males. I have seen it happen. The female martin is more likely to stay and guard her babies while the male often leaves soon after feeding his young. I have watched males leave while a SY male sits directly above their nest, waiting patiently for his chance to throw out the young. It is ironic that not a single martin egg or nestling has ever been harmed by any house sparrow or starling in our two personal colonies and yet untold numbers of martin babies have been killed by SY males since I started my colony in 2005. The single SY male martin is the number one enemy of small featherless martin babies in our colonies. Fortunately, most SY male martins don't engage in infanticide behavior, but those that do can cause a lot of problems.

By May most migrant Accipiter hawks (Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks) and merlins (small falcons) are no longer passing over our colonies. However, I have seen merlins come over as late as mid-May and attack our martins. This year the number one attacker on our martins has been the merlin; the merlin population seems to be increasing. Most merlins nest in Canada and we don’t have these raptors nesting in Louisiana. I have observed numerous merlins chasing martins and hitting my martin decoys which have been life savers on several occasions. Fortunately, not a single hunt I have witnessed so far was successful and the martins escaped from these superfast merlins. Merlins bring out the very best in martin flying abilities as both birds have high speed long pointed wings and fly in the open. Martins execute breathtaking banking actions, dives and climbs when escaping from merlins which are a match for martins in flight speed. I am often spellbound by these incredible hunts, particularly when a merlin is doing everything it can to catch a martin and the martin is doing the same thing to avoid being caught!

During first and second week of May we often have a magnificent raptor fly over our martin colonies as this regal predator migrates north. So far I seen only a few migrating peregrine falcons and last year I saw over a dozen, including several that made unsuccessful attacks on our martins. Today a peregrine came over at a fairly high rate of speed with its wings narrowed to sharp points and turned backwards. Our martins bolted and climbed above the peregrine which had no chance of catching a martin and continued on north.

All my gourd types are well occupied though my Troyer Horizontals with tunnels and porches and with cling plates proved the most popular earlier in the season. My modified Super Gourds with outside/inside porches have been well received; the female martins seem to like the inside porch that provides more cover/seclusion to her nest. My Excluder Gourds with outside/inside porches are popular, too.

My Trendsetter houses are doing well with some of my 12 room systems either full or nearly so. The Trendsetter is my favorite aluminum house. Just the other day I got a surprise gift from Hilltop Specialties, the company that manufactures the Trendsetter. They sent me a special cleaning tool for cleaning out the door tracks which can become filled with dirt. I had been using a piece of metal trim coil but the new cleaning tool is MUCH BETTER. Apparently Trendsetters as of February 2, 2016 have the new cleaning tool.

So far this season, I have shot only one male house sparrow and we rarely have any issues with sparrows in our two personal colonies. Sparrows would have little chance of securing territory in our gourds/houses because of the huge number of martins which readily defend their nests.

Starlings are strong flyers and travel longer distances than sparrows to find territory. Since the beginning of February I have shot four male starlings and trapped 16 others (14 males and two females) in a “trap box system” composed of four PMCA cavity box traps. This trap box system is attached to a Deluxe gourd rack hub and raised and lowered by rope/pulley. I have the system placed about 150 yards north of Bob’s colony in an open pasture and starlings “check in but don’t check out alive”. Starlings are largely a non-issue for us and my shooting/trapping effectively eliminates them before they cause any problems for the martins. When our colonies are loaded with martins covering the housing, any starling that flies near will often avoid the martins and head for the trap box system.

Male martins are still actively dawn singing and it is LOUD in the early morning darkness. Martins seem to have no sense of danger from night time predators and advertise their location to such ferocious killers like great horned and barred owls. In my colony male martins sit out in the open on gourd racks/perches and houses and just “holler” in the darkness the following song: “Calling all owls. Here we are sitting out in the open, telling you where we are and we are ready to be eaten!” I patrol around my martin colony every morning beginning at around 5:00 am to minimize the chances that an owl will swoop in and pluck a dawn singing male martin off a gourd rack or house. So far this action has worked. I suspect that many dawn singing male martins are predated by owls every season all over North America. Also the other nocturnal vocalizations of martins are easily detected by hunting owls.

Most nest building activities by the martins is slowing down as martins are laying or incubating eggs or getting ready to lay eggs. Some of the newer SY or ASY pairs are still bringing in leaves. I build substantial pre-nests of pine straw and all the martins really have to do is add leaves though most martins do add more material and some females build mud dams.

Gangs of ASY male martins are raping female martins and beating them to the ground. However, this season the gang rapes have not been as savage as in the past and so far not a single female has been killed or injured. We usually have some females with broken wings or are even killed by ASY males when the females are ready to be fertilized. I have had to rescue a few females that had been beaten down by a gang of ASY males in my yard and drenched by morning dew in the grass. This morning I rescued one and placed her in a closed up gourd so she could get over the trauma and dry out. As often happens, she laid an egg in the gourd. The males KNOW when a female has an egg in her and they viciously rape her when she is often trying to get in her nest; they hit her hard from behind and force her to the ground. Females can be killed or seriously injured when hurled violently against a gourd or side of a house by attacking males. I have watched these males horribly rape a poor downed female over and over and over again as she crawls through the wet grass. If I don’t intervene, then there is a chance she will be killed or injured. I hope the gang rapes continue to be fewer than normal.

Our five satellite martin colonies are doing well, too and some are almost filled to capacity. Several colonies had significant Accipiter hawk predation problems earlier, but these may have been migrant hawks and are now gone. These colonies have recovered nicely.

The aggressive martins and our shooting/trapping are keeping nearly all house sparrows at bay. Our martins are NOT wimps and readily defend their nests from house sparrows and usually win. The key is to keep the sparrow nests OUT before any martins lay eggs so that martins can enter and take over their old cavities. A thickly constructed sparrow nest may keep the larger martin from entering and re-establishing his/her territorial defensive instinct. Once returning ASY martins have entered their old cavities and become bonded, these martins take on any house sparrows and keep them out in most cases at our satellite colonies. I have never seen sparrows evict a pair of ASY martins from their nest through fighting though sparrows can destroy unguarded martins’ eggs/small nestlings or try to clog up the martins’ cavity with their own material when the martins are not there. Sparrows can still move into vacant cavities that are not being controlled by martins. We try to eliminate these sparrows through trapping/shooting.

The other day we visited one of our satellite colonies and I saw a pair of house sparrows carrying nesting material to a cavity in a Trio that I knew had a pair of ASY martins. We wondered if the martins had been caught by hawks as this colony was severely terrorized by Cooper’s hawks at one time. Well the sparrows got a rude awakening when a female martin, which obviously was nesting there, arrived and beat the male sparrow to the ground several times; the sparrow emitted loud cries when being attacked. The martin even pulled the sparrow out of the cavity once and savagely knocked him to the ground. The martin then quickly entered her cavity and dared any sparrow to approach! The female sparrow left while the male was agitated and bounced all around the housing.

But then something magical happened! There was small explosion of feathers and the male sparrow dropped straight down to the ground and never moved! Deadly Bob sent that house sparrow where all sparrows need to go! Bob discreetly eliminates sparrows and starlings at every opportunity!

Soon many martins in our personal colonies will be feeding babies and the first young to fledge should be around the last week of May. We usually have martins with nestlings until the last of July and sometimes a late pair or two in early August.

Steve

[MichaelH]

Great report Steve as always love reading your updates ,keep up the good work
Mick

[cajun]

Yea great report Steve, its always exciting to see your updates!! I had a scare with the bad weather the other morning. I had a lot of martins that left and eventually came back. I had 1 ASY female with 5 eggs that did not return for 3 days but then she showed up. I am also seeing more and more Sy martins and have a few more pairs and some lonely SY males the TROUBLEMAKERS!! I have one pair of SY martins that have laid eggs in 3 different compartments in the trio minis, I am tempted to put all the eggs in one nest. , but I guess it is better to leave nature alone.

[taxidermy lady]

One thing about it Steve and Bob will never have to worry about the colony not returning! Hope they all fledge their babies because that's a bunch! Thanks for all you do.

[tor]

Thanks for the update, Steve. Always appreciated.
The gang rapes have been going on for two weeks now off and on up here in the Pee Dee of SC. I have not seen a female not being able to get back up though. It is still hard to watch this ruthless behavior.
We don't have a lot of starling or sparrow issues. I probably shoot a couple of each every year, so I consider us lucky. They usually get shot off the porches with a Leupold-scoped Ruger 1022 on a bipod. Still using SREH's all around though.

After all these years, I am still truly amazed with the martins flying abilities. Incredible speed dives, sudden directional changes that just defy physics. The only raptors we have around (that I have seen flying around and once in a while hitting our decoys) are sharp-shinners. They have a nasty habit of flying in low and hitting our 5 ft dog fence we have around a ~6 acre dog yard. Hate to see this when it happens. Beautiful raptors. The colony is sitting inside the yard. Our two Shiloh Shepherds sometimes lay right under the racks, and the martins just come and go as usual .

Hope you have a great season, Steve, and we all appreciate your great work and insight.

[Gauxt]

Thanks for the report Steve, very interesting.

Cajun......I was advised by a friend to try and pinpoint which gourd they are using the most and put all the eggs there if you're sure that it's the same female laying in different gourds. It worked for me....just a thought.
Guy

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Michael,

I am glad you like the updates. I try to provide one periodically and usually post an end of the year final report. Please keep sharing updates about your martin colony, too.

Steve

Hey Tim,

I'm glad you like the updates. We, too, had a scare with potential bad weather the other night when a violent thunderstorm with high winds/hail was just south of us! Fortunately for us it moved northeast and we didn't get any of the wind/hail.

I have had a few cases where a female martin laid eggs in different nests. This was always the result of a pair of martins dominating multiple gourds/house compartments and the female may have laid eggs in different to nests to control the territory or she got confused. Since I was SURE it was the same female, I moved all the eggs to the nest with most eggs and temporarily closed up the other cavities until she was totally bonded to her nest with ALL the eggs. She was moving around trying to incubate all eggs and none may have hatched because of inconsistent incubation. In the few cases where I have done this, the female incubated as normal and the eggs hatched.

If you notice the female is moving around and trying to incubate all eggs at different times, then none of the eggs may hatch. If she is staying with one nest and incubates those eggs at night, then those eggs will probably hatch. If you are sure it is the SAME female, then moving the eggs to one nest and then temporarily closing up the other cavities is an option if you feel comfortable doing that.

I hope your new martin colony continues to grow and please keep us posted!

Steve

Hey Taxidermy Lady,

Thank you for those kind remarks! We do our best to protect our martins and keep them happy!

Steve

Hey Tor,

I'm glad you liked the update.

The gang rapes are really bad when the males knock the female down in the wet grass or nearby hayfield and she becomes drenched and unable to fly. The males are absolutely ruthless and will bury her alive with their bodies. I have broken up so many of these attacks and sometimes I have to pull a male off a female as both are soaking wet from the dew and the male will NOT let her go! The males even beat the females down in the middle of the road in front of our colonies and a truck/car could easily kill the whole bunch.

Our colonies are attacked by migratory Cooper's, sharpies, merlins and a few peregrines every year, mainly during March, April and the first of May. We have multiple attacks daily sometimes. Then in June and July the resident Cooper's hawks catch numerous martin fledglings and I often witnessed five or six kills a day.

Adult martins are mainly vulnerable to raptors low down near their colony and martins tend to be superior in flying higher up in the sky where martins have room to maneuver. Martins can fly circles around the Accipiters high up in the sky!

I hope you have a great martin season, too and please keep us posted on how your colony is doing.

Steve

Hey Guy,

Yes, it does work and I have done it several times. Just make sure it is the SAME female laying the eggs in multiple nests. Thanks for sharing your experience with this.

Steve