Research Project - Effects of Hurricanes on Purple Martin Populations

[Jangles]

Hello,

So I am taking a college course titled Emergency Management & Planning. This professor requires a research project and presentation in each of his classes involving the course material. He likes it to be related to the field we intend on working in, but since I already work in that field and am going back to school strictly for upward mobility within my company, I asked if I could do mine on the effects of hurricanes on Martin populations (started a colony last year, still waiting on scouts to return for year 2). Part of my project abstract involved starting a conversation on this forum in hopes to learn from PMCA members on some of the struggles hurricanes bring to individual Purple Martin colonies as well to Purple Martin populations as a whole, so if anyone has anything to share, it would be much appreciated.

With limited research (so far), the main areas I have identified as concerns for Purple Martins during hurricane landfalls are as follows:

-House displacement (including loss of nestlings)
-Lack of food during prolonged winds and flooding
-Roost displacement if and when roosts are uprooted (including interference with migratory routes).

Does anyone know of any other major concerns?

If somebody wants to chime in and has any information on these concerns, including regional Martin population data before and after hurricanes, that would be fantastic. If you have any information on solutions for these concerns, that's something I'll be hypothesizing about as well.

My abstract states that I will be Identifying the categories of impact of major storms on Purple Martin populations (above), Researching Purple Martin populations before and after major storms to see the impact of those storms, Identifying mitigation tactics for nesting and migrating Purple Martins, and finally communicate my results here and in class.

My abstract also states my expectations from the project as per hypothesized solutions to these concerns:

-I expect there's an engineering solution for nesting Purple Martins regarding keeping housing up during storms
-I expect there's a training and dissemination (on this forum) solution for Purple Martin feeding during major storms
-I expect there's a community effort solution for mitigating roost displacement after a storm.

All of this is a pre-project hypothesis, but I'm curious what the actual solutions will be.

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to reading any information you all have on this.

[DLN]

Hello Jangles

To start the conversation for you, I am a retired meteorologist with a Purple Martin colony located in Mary Esther, Florida. This is in the Panhandle of Florida and on the Gulf of Mexico. My Purple Martin house is on my beach on a waterway called the Santa Rosa Sound. The Sound is about 3/4 mile wide, then there is a barrier island called Santa Rosa Island and on the other side of the narrow island is the Gulf of Mexico. I have given my colony the ultimate open flyway.

Hurricane season officially runs from 1 June to 30 November; however Hurricanes can occur prior to or after those dates but not with any high probability. For my location, the season peak is August through November with what is known as the Cape Verde season. For June and July, tropical cyclones form in the Caribbean Sea or Bay of Campeche/Gulf of Mexico but we don’t see as many in these two months.

My Purple Martins arrived yesterday, 25 February, and will depart the area no later than 14 July but usually gone by 1 July. My Martins are never here during peak hurricane season. I always drop my empty house on 1 August in preparation for hurricane season.

If a tropical cyclone were to arrive during June or July and, if birds were still nesting in the house, I would drop the house proportionally to the wind speed expected. My pole is a telescoping 16 ft pole, each section 4 ft. I would do so in the day time so the birds would know that their take-off altitude has been lowered and can adjust accordingly. I chose an octagon shaped house specifically with high wind speeds in mind. It’s as close to round as I could get in order for the wind to flow easily around it. Dome houses survive hurricanes best so round Martin houses should survive better than square Martin houses.

I started my colony in 2014 and have not had a tropical cyclone hit here during June or July that required any lowering of the house.

So, for my location, hurricanes are not considered an issue for Purple Martins. I believe the birds know this as well and that’s why they come and go when they do—to beat the hurricane season.

I hope this information helps you with your project.

DLN

[C.C.Martins]

Hello from corpus christi,
Our martin season here can extend well into the hurricane season, especially the younger martins and or displaced martins seeking a home. Hurricane Harvey came through just to the north of us...northern areas (rockport, port aransas and aransas pass for example) got hit hard. We had high winds and rain in town. It hit as martins were just finishing their fledging and starting to roost.

I can speak about the roost displacement as our colony had fledged and were gone when it hit so didnt experience housing loss or bird loss.

One roost was located on South padre island drive and airline road, located in some oaks. We were watching it just before harvey hit. There was well over a thousand birds. Just before harvey made landfall, business as usual.

Things were a bit busy during the storm and just after it passed, ms louise chambers went to check on it, if i remember right she reported no dead martins due to the storm, except signs of the usual predation but the martins had all left, early.

As far as house displacement, most we can do is lower the house as far as we dare and pray. A very good system, well grounded, can survive quite a beating.

Because of what harvey did to the houston area, in terms of massive flooding i hope some landlords from the area can assist. Certinally those landlords along the coast can help.

[Jangles]

Wow, this is great information so far!

DLN, dropping the Martin housing is the primary thing I considered if a hurricane or strong storm hit, but I never considered it during the daytime. Do you think the Martins would have difficulty adjusting their flight out of the houses if you made this adjustment at night? Also, I wonder how low we can drop the housing while keeping the Martin's happy. My T-14 housing is on an 18 foot custom pole with a winch. I've always sort of considered dropping it up to halfway during a storm, but nothing too strong has hit during Martin season the one year I had Martins (last year).

C.C. Martins, how early would you say the Martins left? Any clue? And what type of roost is it? Giant tree? Yeah, I would love to get some info on Harvey. I live in Houston, but didn't have a colony yet that season.

Thanks,
Jangles

[C.C.Martins]

Sir, harvey made landfall August 25th.at 10pm. It slowed considerably before striking the coast. Roosts in the area historically stay until end of august, they aggregate into very big groups until they decide to leave. Looking at some of the historical roost reports here made by John barrow, they leave around the 30th so i believe they vacated about 5 days early.
Surprisingly the trees are smaller (15-20 foot) oaks and crepe merdle. There are bigger trees nearby but they elected to stay there...just behind a whataburger. The martins co mingle with greater grackles and starlings.

If i may suggest go to advanced search in the forum and type in harvey and under author put in louise chambers. She had some good info you may find interesting.

Hope this helps you.

[TheSmiths]

You might receive additional responses by posting in the PMCA Facebook group.