First Purple Martins fledge (1 Viewer)

HelenB · Jun 4, 2003

June 3rd, the first pair of Purple Martins to start building their nest at the end of March, have fledged 5 out of the 6 young that were in the nest. Unfortunately, one must not have been able to fly, as I found it dead - run over by a golf cart - on the path that passes within a few feet of our garden fence, where the martin house pole is attached.

We still have 7 active nests, with a total of 21 hatchlings and 8 eggs, in the 12 compartment martin house.

The young fledged from compartment T6. In the photo below you can see how one young martin got stuck in the hole on May 31st. Some of them came out too soon, and the parents got them back in except that this one had its wings open as it went in. It stayed like this for about 10 minutes, before it finally backed out and went in properly. Later we noticed that one of the young had gone into the next compartment, T1, where there was no nest, so we had to lower the house and put it back in T6. Otherwise it would have starved, as the parents will only feed their young if they are in the correct hole!

birdman · Jun 5, 2003

Nice photo HelenB,

Are you a "professional"? Or is this kind of nestbox readily available for this purpose in the US.

I ask, partly because it must be great having all those birds in you garden - just wondered if it was normal, or whether you are part of some sort of study.

Also, I'm guessing this nest-apartment-block is about 6 feet tall (???).

I wonder, because our House-Martins (do you get them in Texas?) often nest, as the name suggests, on houses - making mud nests beneath the eaves - so about 30 feet up(?).

Our house is in it's first full year of existence, and we have had some House-Martins apparently "checking us out".

Here's hoping!

seb_seb · Jun 5, 2003

what are they eating?

HelenB · Jun 5, 2003

Hi Birdman,
No, I'm not a professional - just an amateur Purple Martin landlord. These nestboxes are readily available - some people who live out in the country with large properties will put up lots of these houses and/or the gourds, that PM's will also nest in. East of the Rockies, PM's are almost totally reliant on this type of provided housing. They are secondary cavity nesters, but unfortunately European Starlings and House Sparrows have taken over the old woodpecker type holes that the martins used before those non-native species got here!

The martin house is probably about 15 feet up. We have an eye level view of it from our upstairs deck (balcony). Will post a photo taken a few minutes ago in the rain - the first significant rain we've had in my area for over a month.

No House Martins anywhere in the States, but we do have Sand Martins, except that they are called Bank Swallows, here. In an RSPB catalogue, I saw some "thingies" that you can mount under your eaves for House Martins to build their nest in.

I am member of the Purple Martin Conservation Society and I keep a log of the nesting success of my colony, every year. Have a look at their website for more information:
http://www.purplemartin.org/index.html

seb_seb
They eat insects - catch dragonflies, damselflies, butterlies, even. Its quite amusing to see them arrive with a huge dragonfly and watch it go in the big yellow mouth of one of the babies. There's info on that on the website mentioned above. People used to think that they ate a lot of mosquitoes, but scientific research has shown this is not true! Pity, as we get a lot here.

wroughtiron · Mar 4, 2005

Purple Martins 2005

What time did your Purple Martins arrive this year?
I attached a pic of an ASY male perching on my gourd rack, the picture was taken March 2, 2005.

J.S. Dillon
Tallahassee, Florida

HelenB said:
Hi Birdman,
No, I'm not a professional - just an amateur Purple Martin landlord. These nestboxes are readily available - some people who live out in the country with large properties will put up lots of these houses and/or the gourds, that PM's will also nest in. East of the Rockies, PM's are almost totally reliant on this type of provided housing. They are secondary cavity nesters, but unfortunately European Starlings and House Sparrows have taken over the old woodpecker type holes that the martins used before those non-native species got here!

The martin house is probably about 15 feet up. We have an eye level view of it from our upstairs deck (balcony). Will post a photo taken a few minutes ago in the rain - the first significant rain we've had in my area for over a month.

No House Martins anywhere in the States, but we do have Sand Martins, except that they are called Bank Swallows, here. In an RSPB catalogue, I saw some "thingies" that you can mount under your eaves for House Martins to build their nest in.

I am member of the Purple Martin Conservation Society and I keep a log of the nesting success of my colony, every year. Have a look at their website for more information:
http://www.purplemartin.org/index.html

seb_seb
They eat insects - catch dragonflies, damselflies, butterlies, even. Its quite amusing to see them arrive with a huge dragonfly and watch it go in the big yellow mouth of one of the babies. There's info on that on the website mentioned above. People used to think that they ate a lot of mosquitoes, but scientific research has shown this is not true! Pity, as we get a lot here.

HelenB · Mar 4, 2005

Hi JS
We saw the first male scout on Feb 20th (last year was the 18th), but then had 5 martins a few days ago. Two days ago there were 7, both male and female, sheltering from the rain on & in the house. Today there are a couple of males fighting over one of the compartments!!

How many gourds do you have? Hope you have a good season.

wroughtiron said:
What time did your Purple Martins arrive this year?
I attached a pic of an ASY male perching on my gourd rack, the picture was taken March 2, 2005.

J.S. Dillon
Tallahassee, Florida

wroughtiron · Mar 4, 2005

SuperGourds

Helen B, I have 12 SuperGourds with crescent shaped entrances. I have those entrances types mainly because of Screech Owls, not really because of Starlings. I went to your website and signed your guest book.

J.S. Dillon

HelenB said:
Hi JS
We saw the first male scout on Feb 20th (last year was the 18th), but then had 5 martins a few days ago. Two days ago there were 7, both male and female, sheltering from the rain on & in the house. Today there are a couple of males fighting over one of the compartments!!

How many gourds do you have? Hope you have a good season.

HelenB · Mar 4, 2005

Thanks for signing the guestbook. I need to get my martin pages up to date - last season was not a good one and I never felt like uploading results and photos. After those first young ones fledged, we had a couple of weeks of constant rain & cool weather. We were away at the time and when we returned we found the house abandoned and at least 10 dead martins in & on the house. I was devastated, but there probably was not a lot I could have done unless I'd been able to put out supplemental food such as mealworms. I hope the June weather is better this year.

wroughtiron said:
Helen B, I have 12 SuperGourds with crescent shaped entrances. I have those entrances types mainly because of Screech Owls, not really because of Starlings. I went to your website and signed your guest book.

J.S. Dillon

birdpotter · Mar 4, 2005

HelenB said:
last season was not a good one and I never felt like uploading results and photos. After those first young ones fledged, we had a couple of weeks of constant rain & cool weather. We were away at the time and when we returned we found the house abandoned and at least 10 dead martins in & on the house. I was devastated, but there probably was not a lot I could have done unless I'd been able to put out supplemental food such as mealworms. I hope the June weather is better this year.

Would the weather really have been that much of an issue, especially with the birds so close to fledging? I am just curious, since you also mentioned something about a golf cart path, I am curious if it wasn't poison...golf courses are evil in my mind. And since you are in Texas I can't imagine the weather getting THAT bad for the birds...but I could always be wrong. Enlighten me.
Elizabeth

HelenB · Mar 4, 2005

birdpotter said:
Would the weather really have been that much of an issue, especially with the birds so close to fledging? I am just curious, since you also mentioned something about a golf cart path, I am curious if it wasn't poison...golf courses are evil in my mind. And since you are in Texas I can't imagine the weather getting THAT bad for the birds...but I could always be wrong. Enlighten me.
Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth,
I don't think it has anything to do with the chemicals the golf club use, as I've had a PM colony here for the last 6 years, with no problems like last year. Cold wet weather really does affect the martins, as they feed exclusively on flying insects. June is usually pretty warm in the Houston area, but we had one of the wettest Junes on record last year and during the last 2 weeks of the month it rained continuously for 10 days. I don't know what the temperature was like as I was out of town - probably in the low 70's, but the rain would have stopped the insects flying and martins do not have the ability to change their feeding methods.

I've just done a search on the Purple Martin Forum and found this section in the FAQ's:

7. Does cold weather affect Purple Martins? Purple Martins are adversely affected by weather in which the temperature is constantly below about 48 degrees for three days or there is constant rain for a period longer than three days. The martin’s dietary staple, flying insects, do not fly in these conditions, and after the three day period, martins will begin to die from starvation. Cold weather will also lead to "communal roosting" by martins, i.e., many birds will congregate in one nest cavity for warmth. Many martin landlords have successfully used emergency cold weather feeding of crickets to martins. See Update issue 9(4), "Cricket Tossing: A New Emergency Feeding Technique for Purple Martins" http://www.purplemartin.org/update/9(4)crickettoss.html Other Cricket feeding information can be found at: http://purplemartin.org/forumarchives/archive/CricketTossing.htm and http://purplemartin.org/forumarchives/archive/CricketFeed2001.htm

*********************************

During inclement weather, some people with large colonies will actually use a catapult to launce crickets up into the air for the martins to fly out and catch. Some other landlords have been lucky enough to have the martins use a tray of mealworms (like bluebirds do), but some martins won't as they are only used to catching insects on the wing.

Hope this answers your questions.

birdpotter · Mar 5, 2005

I never thought of inclement weather for PMs to be constant rain. But it makes sense.
I think I would definitely like to see a cricket catapult!

Thanks for doing the search. I wish you the best of luck this year.

Elizabeth

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