Journals of an Amateur Naturalist

2016 Purple Martin Season 1

The 2016 martin season has begun! On April 6 I dropped the gourds and unfortunately found two dead martins in two separate gourds. Each bird sustained an injury to the back of the head. Both deaths could have very possibly been due to territorial disputes since it occurred at the beginning of the season. Either one could have also been the result of a dispute with a European starling. I did see a few landing on the racks not long after I put them in the air. What ever the reason it is always sad to find this.

On a happier note, I began performing nest checks today and have found several full and partial nests (9 full and 3 partial). I took a photo of one of the gourds where you can see mud splattered all around the entrance. This is from the carrying of mud to the nest for building the mud dam.

I'm planning on rebuilding my gourd rack arms for the 2017 season. The racks I have up have been in use since 1998 and are beginning to show their age. I will get started on them this summer/early fall.

See these prior posts: (1) (2) (3)

Labels: european starling, pmca, puma, purple martin, purple martin colony, swallow

Nest Checking With Grand-daughter

Today I performed my third nest check of the 2015 season and had a little helper recording what I saw- my 7-year old granddaughter. As I checked each of my 32 gourds I would call out what I was seeing and she would write it down. We found a total of 31 eggs between the two gourd racks.
This is the first time she actually participated instead of just watching. I was so proud!

She was hoping that I would find some nestlings, but it's still too early. She still remembers the time I allowed her to hold her first purple martin. She was so excited to hold a tiny, living bird in her hand- and so was I. She was very excited to participate and can't wait to do it again. I hope my enthusiasm for the this bird encourages her in the future to have her own purple martin colony and use what I've taught her to maintain it and help this wonderful bird continue to exist.

Labels: birds, colony, martins, nature, nature blog, nest check, pmca, puma, purple martin, purple martin colony, swallow

First Death of the 2015 PUMA Season

The season has barely begun and I already have a casualty. I had lowered the gourds a couple weeks ago to pull plugs from the crescent/porch gourds when I noticed a foul odor. Inside one of the gourds I found a dead ASY purple martin which had what appeared to be an injury on the one side of its head.

It is not uncommon for this to happen at the beginning of the season when males are involved in territorial battles for nesting sites and is definitely not the first time this has happened at my colony. This fighting also occurs between females (see this post "Intraspecific Fighting" and "A Death in the Colony"). Then again a European starling could be the culprit. It's really a shame that this bird survived its long arduous journey across the Gulf of Mexico to get back here, only to die in this fashion. I checked for bands, but none were found.

Labels: bird, european starling, intraspecific fighting, martins, martinwatch, nest-site competitors, pmca, puma, purple martin, swallow

2014 Purple Martin Colony Preparations

Purple martins are starting to show up in various parts of Texas. Seems like they just left on their long migration to South America. I usually begin seeing them showing up at my colony around the second or third week of February, which isn't far away.

This year will mark the 20th year that I have had a martin colony and over the last few days I've began making the usual preparations for their arrival. I cleaned out and washed the gourds in a mixture of bleach and dish washing liquid and repainted the wooden rack's arms. Each year I also change out the ropes used to raise and lower the racks. A rope that has been out in the elements for a year can weaken and the last thing I need in the middle of the nesting season is for a rope to break, which could be disastrous.

I also had to re-caulk several of the PVC elbows that I installed on each gourd that help with ventilation during those hot Texas summer days.

I've began to replenish my leaf pile that I've had near the racks for years. This allows the martins to collect nesting material near the colony so as to not waste precious energy looking for it otherwise.

Once I got the gourds attached to the racks arms I placed caps in the entrance holes until I begin to see martins in the area, otherwise English house sparrows and European starlings would try and take over. Hopefully this will be a productive season.