"I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." ~Wendell Berry


Showing posts with label Missouri purple martins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Missouri purple martins. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Nest Check Season Begins and Sub-Adults Swarm Missouri


For the last three weeks, I have been swarmed by sub-adult purple martins as they flooded into my site, harassing the already-established pairs.  We must have had a banner year last year and the happy, carefree calls and antics from the sub-adult males as they try to find a mate puts a grin on my face and tears in my eyes as I stop to enjoy the sounds and raw nature of these birds as they focus on their single goal.  Last Saturday afternoon, May 21st, I decided it was the perfect weather to do my first nest check of the season.  With the temperatures being so cold during the prior week and having to feed almost 160 martins, I was dreading nest checks, but I had to know.
As I gathered my tools, the persistent cheeping of the baby bluebirds begging for food from their exhausted parents made it easy to spot this little fellow in the yard.  Unfortunately, I had found feathers from one of his brothers/sisters nearby, indicating the owl had caught one of them.  But this one's a survivor and I was about to discover how my colony was surviving too.
Bob bought a new tool belt for me to hold all the new equipment I now need for my nest checks inside the wire cages.  It has a belt clip on the back to hook over a belt or the waistband of your pants.  It has plenty of small pouches around the outside with a few clips too, and even a magnetized patch for holding screws, nuts or gourd clips.  It has loops inside the main pouch which will hold things in place and a large opening inside for holding bigger items. I've added wire cutters to quickly cut zip ties that hold the wire cage panels on the frame, 3 different sizes of zip ties for various applications, a marker for refreshing gourd numbers, needle nose pliers for pulling the stubborn zip ties tighter, and I put the zip tie discards in the middle open pouch.  As my nestlings get older, I'll safety pin a plastic bag to the side containing an index card.  The index card will be an easy, quick reference list of nest cavities with the older nestlings whose nest needs to be plugged.  This thing has room for much, much more - as long as my pants don't slide down from all the weight.

A picture of my old tool belt (things fell out of it too easily) and tool box.  I still use the tool box to carry all my nest plugs (used for plugging cavities with older nestlings), a bag full of alcohol wipes, and it also makes a nice step stool for the upper gourd levels.
The martins know what's coming when I enter the yard with my tool belt, my tool box, and my white hat, while smelling like Vanilla extract. The old-timers don't mind - they hang out on the cages and perches, awaiting their turn, while the new sub-adults flush and scream to alert everyone that surely, the Vanilla extract I'm wearing will be used create some tasty dish out of all of them.
The martins in the middle rack await their turn.  They know what's coming. But first, I have to remove the ties that hold each panel to the next, so I can slip inside.
I also use a voice recorder for all my nest checks that I pin to my shirt for easy access.  This helps keep my hands free and I don't have to deal with keeping track of a pen & paper in all the chaos too.  I've had this little thing for the last 6 years and it just keeps going & going.  With 84 cavities to check, it is just another tool that helps expedite the process.
Sony voice recorder.
With some dark days behind us with the cool weather and repeated, Great Horned Owl attacks every night, my heart pounded and I could hear the blood rushing through my veins, unsure of what I would find. 

To my delight, I found 54 pair of nesting purple martins, which is 8 pair ahead of last year around the same part of May, along with 264 eggs and 10 young nestlings.  Still, I didn't know which way my numbers were trending, so I waited another week before breathing a sigh of relief with another nest check completed this past Saturday, May 28th.  I am so excited to report my total pair number increased to 71 pair, 306 eggs and 40 young.  YIPPEEEE!!! 
Since adding the roof over the top of the house cage and extending the bottom of the wire, the owl has been visiting less frequently. I've also been going out just before complete dark and shooing the sub-adults off the porches.
In 2014 and 2015, I had 76 total pair each year and this year, I'm on track for the same total, if not more this year.  Despite the best efforts of the GHO, my martins are surging ahead with their work.  Establishing nests, finding mates and supplying food to the ever-growing number of nestlings.  During the day, you would never know what terrors they have experienced.  They may not forget the night before, but they're moving on quickly & efficiently with their lives, obviously enjoying this moment - the present.  I think I need to be more like my purple martins too - enjoy this moment, for today, we are still the survivors.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

New Season, More Changes

On Saturday, 3/26 it reached 69 degrees on Gobbler's Knob. But with the ever-present Spring wind, it felt a bit cooler - maybe 68 degrees.  Heh! Oh, but it was so beautiful and there was absolutely no way, I was going to stay indoors.  I was quite surprised when I flushed my martins - it appears my 84 cavity colony is already 1/2 full!  I've never been that full by this time of year before.
My first priority was to finish up my owl cages on my Deluxe gourd racks.  My jerry-rigged, owl interference didn't work as well on those racks last year and I've no doubt that I'll be seeing my Great Horned Owl again this year and possibly, my Barred Owl as well.
I would have caged these 2 racks last year, however, I could never come up with an idea that would work, both because these racks had no place to mount homemade supports for the wire and there were also weight considerations (it's windy here in the spring!).  In summer of 2015, we figured out what we needed to do.  I ordered the same stainless steel arms for these racks from the original manufacturer, only the length of these arms would be changed to 36" and they would have the same gourd mounting holes as the originals.  I ordered 8 arms per rack as that would be enough to support the type of wire cage I needed to build.
Here's what my racks looked like last year, just using garden stakes as a 'cage' to interfere with any owl messing with them.

I decided that I would use 4 panels of 4 foot-high welded-mesh wire fencing, per rack.  Each panel is cut to 56" wide, allowing me to bow them out almost 10" from the front of each gourd.  I was surprised how light the 4 panels were, as I gathered them up and carried them out to the first rack.  The top of each panel is mounted on a stainless steel rod and I added the heavy duty garden stakes along the top in between the new stainless rods, to add more support.
Note the two new, extra long stainless rods. Each panel is cinched together with a heavy duty zip tie, tightening it down on the rod.
Heavy duty zip ties hold together the edges of each panel in place on the rods.  The inside white zip tie is there only to keep the yellow tie & wire from sliding inward.
A smaller zip tie was added inside on just the rod (not holding anything), but will help keep the outside yellow zip tie from sliding inward.
The tops of the panels are all zip-tied to the garden stakes and the top wire 'ceiling' along the way, closing all the gaps at the top.  All I have to do is cut the 3 zip ties holding each panel to the next at the seam, leaving the zip ties at the top that hold it to the extra heavy rods on the top, lift the panel up and walk in.
Each rectangle is 2" wide - you can see the cage is at least 10" out in front of each gourd entrance.

As with my other rack that I enclosed a couple of years ago, I will need to work a little more slowly and be more cognizant of where my face is at all times, since some martins tend to flush out of the gourd at the very last second.
The fencing is 48" high so it drops below the most bottom gourds about 6".  I will have to monitor to see if that's going to be sufficient
East Rack - 3/26/2016

Mid Rack - 3/26/2016

Each cage took 35 - 40 minutes to install and I was really glad that I made the changes early in the day, since it took the colony some time to adjust to their new surroundings. So, 38 feet of mesh wire fencing, a couple of packs of zip ties, some heavy duty stainless steel rods, 24 feet of undersill trim to make some nice, 4"x4" landing spots, a handy pair of wire cutters and a good pair of leather work gloves and I'll be able to better sleep at night.  I think my most stressful time last year was when the new fledges came home late in the evening and hunkered down on the inside gourd arms.  I knew those 'easy catches' were going to attract the owl and I spent many hours & nights outside with them, trying to gently encourage them inside or leave the site. With these new cages, they can safely roost on the arms if they want and stick their tongues out at the GHO when she comes.
Some were initially frightened by the changes, fluttering around and around the outside of the cages, while others flew under and straight up to their gourd without missing a beat.  Some ended up hanging upside down on the cage, and some landed on top and dropped right through to their gourd.  Some of the territorial fighting resumed, with the males quickly reclaiming their gourds as their competitors dropped through the top of the wire in full battle mode, proving that each of these birds have their own character and personality as unique as we humans.
I had a really hard time not laughing out loud (and I can laugh really loud) at some of the antics in this video.  Enjoy!

Sunday, March 20, 2016

A Welcome Home and Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

My apologies - I'm a bit behind this year with my reporting, since I've been on work travel to Germany.  But now that I'm back, it's time to get back into the swing of things and nothing makes me feel more rooted again than getting outside and preparing all the bluebird, tree swallow and purple martin housing.  Spring has come so early this year and has definitely caught me off guard!
On Sunday, February 28th, while still in Germany, I received an email from my husband.  It was 7 AM his time and a single adult male purple martin had just arrived at my site!  This is the first time a martin has arrived at my site in February.  The earliest arrival ever was March 12th.  Thank goodness I had uncovered my Trendsetter before I left on the trip!  Bob quickly added some pine needles to help provide some warmth at night, when the temps were still dipping down into the low 30's.
Many of my martins are already pairing up.
Two days after the purple martin arrived, on March 1st - the first tree swallow of the year also appeared.  As of yesterday, I now have over 20 martins.  I guess the one thing I can say about hosting purple martins - every year is different!
First Tree Swallow of the season. As of 3/20/2016, there are now over 17 TRES here.

This year, I've made some changes to my PMCA Deluxe Racks so they will be better protected from my local Great Horned Owl.  I'll be posting about that exercise in a couple of weeks! I haven't seen him/her this year but back in late December, I did get to watch this Barred Owl hunting in the north Savanna early morning fog for about an hour.
One of my friends made this very cool rendering of one of the photos I made.  Pretty neat! Hopefully, he/she won't also decide purple martins are on the menu this summer. :(
While getting back in the swing of things, I noticed my list of Missouri landlords has grown to 73!  I'll be writing more about our small, growing community and some of its members later this spring, but I wanted to first write about a very special landlord who was also a very dear, cool friend.
Bob Peterson was one of the first people we met when we moved to Licking 10 years ago.  He owned C-Hwy Garage north of town and my father-in-law introduced us when we were trying to find a part for an old used tractor we had. As I became more educated about hosting purple martins, I began to take notice of his purple martin house.  It was a very old S&K house and he had 3 pairs of HOSP and 1 pair of martins in it during summer of 2009.  I asked him if he enjoyed hosting purple martins and he said, "Yes, if only I could get rid of those "chippies".  I asked him if he'd like some help, which of course he accepted and that started my friendship with him.  After 4 days, we had trapped and eliminated over 55 English House Sparrows.  We cleaned out his house and that summer, he hosted 3 pairs of martins and he fledged 9 young.
After learning more about starlings and house sparrows, and doing nest checks, Bob was hooked.  He came to all of my open houses and presentations and quickly became an advocate for purple martins also, obtaining 10 copies of my newsletter and distributing it to everyone he knew each month. In spring of 2011, Bob, being his usual creative self, tore down his old house and using supplies he found around his junk yard and the knowledge I had gathered for him on the internet, built a gourd rack out of 3" steel pipe and an old satellite dish.  After 3 days, it was ready to go and I went over to celebrate its christening with 8 new Troyer Vertical gourds.  That first year, Bob had 8 pair of martins.
When it came to banding time, Bob didn't want to miss out on the event.  He was here every time and he helped keep the nestlings moving and me organized.  He loved it and he loved learning.  


On July 3, 2013, I was so thrilled for him when he called and told me he thought he had a banded bird at his colony.  What were the odds that someone from 6 miles away who had probably handled that same bird as a nestling, would attract one of them to his site?  We confirmed that day, PUMA band # A675 (an adult male purple martin banded at my site on July 6, 2011) at his site and that bird was still at his colony last year as he hosted 22 pair. Bob had a quick and clever mind.  And I don't think I've ever met a more dependable friend - you could call and before you finished your question, he had already come up with a solution for whatever it was you were asking about. When my husband needed to find a disc to tear up some ground for a new orchard, Bob arrived that weekend with his old tractor and disc and he and my husband had it ready with a few hours.


He was a master gardener and it especially thrilled him to introduce young children to the joy of growing their own vegetables.  Bob would call and laugh as he told me how 'his' purple martins would fly low over his head and try to scare him off as he lowered the rack to do nest checks.  He was preparing to put up a second gourd rack this year before the season started.  On Saturday, March 5th, he walked through my mind as I thought about calling him and asking him if he was ready to put it up yet but, I didn't make that call.  On Monday, March 7th, I was deeply saddened to find out he had died on Friday, March 4th.  Bob was 60 years old.
I'm not sure yet what will happen to Bob's colony or if A675 will return this year.  I haven't been able to bring myself to go over to visit his family and find out what will happen to his colony yet.  I'm sure if his rack is taken down, his family will be erecting it near their own homes as they love purple martins as much as Bob did.  But one thing is for sure - Bob will be missed.  I will miss his quirkiness and his quick-witted retorts, but most of all, his martins will most certainly miss him. 







Thursday, June 25, 2015

Ellie Mae Gets a Makeover for Her 2015 Deployment

I woke up at 3:40 AM Monday morning and decided while I was up anyway, I would check on my purple martins before snuggling back in.  With our new extremely bright LED spotlights shining on the colony, I could see every rack very clearly.  Lo and behold, there was the mighty Giselda, sitting tall and pretty, very proud of herself, on my West Gourd rack.  I watched her for a couple of minutes, then went out to scare her away.  When I checked the videos from the game cards and my Foscam camera Monday afternoon, I found that she had been here quite a while - from around 12:35 AM until I ran her off at 3:40 AM.


I had quite a few of what I thought were 'false triggers' on my game cameras, but in viewing the video from the Foscam camera, I now know why.  Giselda had been a very busy girl for those 3+ hours.  On Sunday, since I have many nestlings that will be fledging over the next week or so, the hawk attacks are increasing, I deployed a lot more decoys.  When my GHO came to hunt, apparently, she thought the decoys were making the noises she was drawn to, and she was attacking them, just out of range of my game cameras.  The 'false triggers' weren't false at all - she was just too fast for the cameras to capture her as she launched her assaults.
In this video, she had just tried a grab on the decoys by my game cameras, failed and landed up there to reevaluate her prey.
Then I found a video that made my stomach turn over and my heart skip a beat.  I watched it over & over to make sure I wasn't making it all up in my head, since the quality is not that great.  She was now attacking my housing and gourds from underneath.  After hitting the house - in the video below, it appears she tried to unsuccessfully land on the predator guard on that pole.  She flapped about, but could not gain footing on it, then fell into the yard.  She roamed around on the ground for about 4-5 minutes, then, after moving about 10' away from the East gourd rack (rack on the far left), she launched an assault under the rods that protect the gourds and attempted to grab one of the gourds.

Luckily, I let my gourds swing freely - moving back & forth with the wind, so, along with the rods interfering with her flapping wings, she could not get a grip on the swinging gourd and attempt to tear off the tunnel.  Even if the martins inside had flushed at that moment, she was still in such a precarious position that she could not grab one of them.  Still....it had to be sheer terror for the martins inside.

But the most surprising video of the night?  The one where she launched herself from the top of a gourd rack, flew past my camera and into the porch area where the new, bright LED lights had attracted a bazillion bugs.  I'm not sharing the video here as it's blurry when she flies by both times and of no use here.  She spent over 5 minutes under there - my guess is she was chasing a mouse or some of the large bugs, but the video only shows her entering and leaving the area.  Nope - this girl is not bashful of any lights!
Ellie Mae is now officially back on duty.  Stuffed with balloons to make her lighter and hanging on my shepherd's hook.  I attached a helium-filled balloon to also help drag her around and keep her moving on the hook, and that's working really well.  I'm moving her around the yard, so my GHO doesn't get too comfortable.
So far, no sightings since 3:40 AM Monday morning.  I'm hoping we can get through the next couple of weeks with this simple tactic.  Much to my husband's dismay, after seeing the grainy video and the low-quality video of her fly-in to the porch, I started talking about another camera.  He's praying the owl will leave before I solidify that plan.  Me too.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Purple Martins in Missouri - a Mid Season Update

I'm scheduled to do a nest check today, but with the temperatures hovering in the low 60's and sprinkles / mist / rain, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to.  Last weekend, my nest check revealed that I have 68 pairs, 37 nestlings and 316 eggs.
With all the rains and cooler weather we've been experiencing in the last week, honestly, I'm a bit afraid to do the nest check.  I've been reading about all the rain they're having in the southern states and the numerous losses of chicks due to a lack of food.  Check out this sad report from Tulsa, OK:  http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30313&start=0
It's not just the coolness or the wet weather that can kill them with hypothermia.  Insects can't fly in constant rain and that will have a significant impact on colonies that are trying to feed nestlings.  Similar, sad stories are also being played out in Texas and Louisiana where the rain is almost constant these last few weeks.
Check this out from the PMCA:
Four types of weather conditions can adversely affect insect availability, causing Purple Martins to starve:  constant temperatures below 50 degrees, steady rain or drizzle, strong
winds, and dense fog.  The average martin will survive for about 4-5 days without food, but will become weakened after 2-3 days, so it is best to begin feeding before they become too weak to fly.  Feeding is even more beneficial when martins have nestlings to feed, as nestlings may only survive one or two days without food.

I heard martins chirping on my porch rail this morning.  It was 59 degrees and more drizzle, so I dumped out a couple of bags of crickets.  To my amazement, they didn't just eat the crickets themselves; they were carrying them back to their gourds to feed their babies.  Things must be more desperate right now than I realized.
One thing I found this morning - it's really hard to track a bird in flight, while trying to capture them on video and keep a solid footing yourself.  I noticed this female and her mate in G25 making multiple trips to the feeder and back to their gourd.  What a good mommy and daddy.  This female is also banded, her band number is E818 - she was captured and banded and nested in the same gourd - G25, in 2014. 

I noticed yesterday that the tree swallows were swooping low over my blooming cone flowers and it suddenly dawned on me that they were catching all the bees that were swarming the pink and yellow blooms!  Well, I planted the flowers to draw more insects to feed the birds, so my plan is working.
I only found 2 bumble bees flying in my meadow today.

The lanceleaf coreopsis is looking very vibrant after all the rain we've had.

What few bees are flying are being caught by the tree swallows that are trying to keep their young fed also.
In other news, snakes are on the move - please make sure you have predator guards on your poles!  There are lots of reports of snakes being caught in the netting placed on poles to keep them from reaching the top.  Snake netting will help stop snakes by ensnaring them.  If fluffed out properly, the snake will try to weave itself through the mesh and become entwined in it.  But this mesh will not stop racoons, so some type of baffle - store bought or homemade is mandatory to protect your birds!  (See how to make your own here).
By placing your netting above the predator baffle, you will only have to deal with cutting out the snakes that make it past your predator guard - which means a lot less hassle and fewer injuries to any beneficial snakes.
Snake caught in netting - photo by Greg Ballard

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Giselda - My Varmit-Eating GHO

This year, I decided that I wanted a wide-angle view of my entire colony at night, from a general monitoring viewpoint, allowing me to also see what may be skittering around my yard.  So, Bob did some research and found a reasonably priced Foscam security camera and hooked it up about a week ago.  We've been struggling with the range of the IR (60') and really not wanting to run power out into the yard to get the camera closer to the racks.  In my last post, I also mentioned that I was trying out a motion detection light and thought that may help scare the owl away if he ever came into the colony and triggered it on.  But since 4/18, I hadn't seen the owl and couldn't prove my new tool was working.  In fact, I was beginning to think he was filling up on my neighbor's guineas, whose numbers have gone from 20+ to 3 or 4 now.  I hear they taste like chicken.  That's the word I'm spreading anyway - 'EAT MOR GUINEAS'.
Yesterday (5/18) I pulled my game card cameras for review and found this video date / time stamped at 5/15/2015 -2:35 AM.  It was a bit alarming and given the perspective of the camera, I couldn't tell what mischief  Giselda had been engaged in before she landed on top of that pole.



The videos recorded through the Foscam camera were taking too long to scan, so I hadn't reviewed them in a couple of days and besides, the IR range and lack of illumination issues were bumming me out.  But somehow, on this night, the stars aligned, the winds were perfect, there was no rain, glowing eyes aided in tracking and the lovely glowing cobwebs added just enough annoying creepiness to make the video below quite interesting.  And I now have confirmation that a motion detection light is spectacularly useless in helping to scare a GHO away from your colony.  But it does provide some nice lighting for recording what she's up to.

I've done some cropping in the video to remove a total of almost 4 minutes of the owl turning his head away, because you really can't see anything when his glowing eyes are not looking towards the camera.  I also removed the first 2 minutes of the video where he entered stage-right, landing on the ground about 15' west of the most west rack.  I saw his glowing eyes through the noise on that side of the frame and thought for a bit that it must be a cat, a racoon or a coyote.  That is, until I got to the 2:23 minute mark and all doubt was removed - (at the 2:23 minute mark - watch the top of the leftmost gourd rack).  You have to watch the video at full-screen and watch along the right hand side - you'll see his glowing eyes periodically and her movement as she apparently glides (I don't think a GHO would run) along the ground.
This video served to provide me with a lot of relief - JOY!  Apparently, on this night anyway, she wasn't there to hunt for martins.  She was there chasing or hunting voles, moles, mice or snakes that were creeping along the ground.  Whew!  What a relief!  She can have all those varmits that she can catch!  That $79 camera just paid for itself in saving me a lot of worry & sleepless nights.  For now, my guards are still working and she seems to be ignoring us.
So, new plan - I'm putting my scarecrow back in the yard (she was inside that night, due to expected rain) and we're installing bright spotlights that will aid in video monitoring.  Enough fooling around.  The cages are working - I just need to know what she's doing.  Maybe "want to know" is a better description.
Sssssshhhhhhh, be very, very quiet, my lovely darlings, for ye know not what lurks beneath.  Or above.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

DawnSong, Full Moon and Night Owls

"Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one.  But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now."  ~Eckhart Tolle
Last Saturday night as I sat on the porch around 9:00 PM, I made the decision that Sunday, I would get up at 4 AM - prime start time for the dawn song.  As I listened to the little padding, skittering feet in my gutters just over my head for the next 30 minutes though, I almost changed my mind.  Back & forth the mice were scampering about...at least, I think they were mice.  When I thought I heard one on the rail alongside me, I decided to pack it in.  Mr. Freeze was in bed already snoring and with Nikki inside also, who would rescue me if the mice executed a coup and had me trussed up in the yard like Gulliver by morning? 
Change of plans - I would still get up but I was going to change my location to the basement patio away from the gutters.  Plenty of room to move far away from my gutter-cleaning mice.
Let me start this post by saying, I am not a morning person.  It's just not in my nature.  I'm a night owl.  I do some of my best thinking late in the evenings, especially after the majority of the population on my continent has gone to sleep.  But last year, after experiencing my first owl attacks, out of necessity, I stayed up all night and had the most awesome early morning experiences I've ever had and I want to do it more often.
I grudgingly set the coffee pot to go off at 3:40 AM and my alarm clock for 4 AM. 
This year, along with my scarecrow, I'm trying a new approach with the owl.  Instead of leaving the porch lights on constantly and directed at  my colony all night, I've deployed a new, motion-detection, solar-powered 850 lumens LED light.  The idea is that it will react to him by turning on when he comes into the colony, hopefully making him think someone is physically in the colony and they turned it on.  My game camera took a video of the Trendsetter rocking to and fro the night of April 18th.  The light switched on and apparently he took off.  We haven't had any attacks in the last 3 weeks, so I'm cautiously optimistic at this point that the light is helping.
Artificial full moon in my back yard.  The light is far brighter than it appears in this picture.  Almost blinding when you're in full darkness like this, but I had no idea how to set my camera to get a true representation of how bright it was and was annoyed just enough to not care at the time.

The information on the light says it has a 70' range with 180 degrees of detection.  At 4 AM Sunday morning, it was on when I first got up and glanced outside.  You can select the number of minutes it will stay on and I had it set at 1 minute.  After getting your eyes adjusted to the darkness, that one minute of bright light seems like an eternity.  
Apparently, it's also very sensitive.  The blasted thing came on every few minutes, reacting to every single martin leaving their housing to dawnsing.  At first, I thought it was funny, but after about the 10th or 11th time, I was annoyed with it and thought what a dumb bunny I had been to face it towards my own house.  This weekend, I'll be moving it to the other side of the colony, where it can't blind me in the darkness.  It didn't appear to phase the martins as I could hear them starting their song after they exited, then a few minutes later, high in the sky, singing away.
Full moon peeking through the clouds - 5/3/2015
By 4:15 AM, I was outside with a full cup of coffee, my camera and a bucket of coffee for refills.  Just me and my martins, the frogs, the tree swallow - the little stinker - who insisted on doing a close flyby, and many other animals that I just prefer not to think about when I'm standing alone in the darkness.  The full moon, peeking through the persistent black clouds made me think of every scary movie I've ever watched.  Enough of that.  You can't think of those things while standing in the dark by yourself or you won't enjoy the magic that's about to happen. By 4:20 AM, I had tuned my ears to block out the other noises and listen for the martins that I knew were above me in the sky, but which I still could not see.  And then I heard the first one. There's the Magic!

Much to my surprise there were many, many more in the sky already, their song echoing through the trees north of my house.  Their song carries extremely well at this time of morning, due to the drops of moisture in the air.  From the PMCA site:
"Dawnsong is a unique set of vocalizations performed by adult male martins during the predawn hours of spring while flying high above their colony sites, or while perched nearby. It is a loud, continuous series of chirps presented in a syncopated series of about seven to nine notes repeated over and over. Each male flies his own path in slow, wide circles about 500 feet up, singing his own unique song. It is estimated that the sounds from a morning of dawnsong transmit to about 100 cubic miles of air volume."
(Hill, James R., Purple Martin Dawnsong, For Attracting Martins!, pg. 3.)"
http://www.purplemartin.org/main/Vocalization.html

Full moon setting - 5/3/2015
After reading multiple posters posting on the internet about why they thought the purple martins dawn sing, I asked Louise Chambers (PMCA), if anyone really knew why they do it.  Louise responded,
"Gene Morton's dawnsong theory was that adult males perform it after their mate is committed and their paternity is assured - it's safe, at that point, to invite sub-adult birds to join the site, so the senior males can have extra offspring via the sub-adult females.  So dawnsong will not be performed until green leaf stage of nest building"

Sunrise - 5/3/2015

By 5:40 AM, they were starting to trickle back into the colony and this one decided to do an encore performance on right there on the racks.  I'm sure the residents still inside their gourds trying to sleep really appreciated his chortling at their front doors.  I personally really appreciated his performance, as I could make out his mouth, throat and general animation during the calls to be interesting too.
My martins have been dawn singing now for a week.  It's great to listen to a cd or listen to these recordings, but if you've never gotten up in the morning to listen to them, I encourage you to try it at least once.  If you love purple martins as much as I do, I guarantee you, it will touch your soul.  They are so free, unafraid and untethered and I feel honored to share in these special hours of pure joy.
A lot of people zip through their lives desperately trying to find something special, something fascinating and thrilling to help brighten their days, something to excite them, never knowing that it is and always has been right there in front of them the whole time - they need only to stop, look and truly breathe it in and enjoy.  Who needs to spend barrels of money on vacations and stressful travel, when you can grab a cup of coffee and walk out in your backyard to experience such thrills?
Sunrise - 5/3/2015 - Can you spot the Purple Martin?

"The soul is your inner-most being.  The presence that you are beyond form.  The consciousness that you are beyond form, that is the soul.  That is who you are in essence."  ~Eckhart Tolle

Monday, April 13, 2015

Springin' to Life


It is April 12th and I estimate that my Purple Martin Colony is now almost 1/2 full.  Last year at this same time, I had around 120 - 140 birds, but right now I have about 35 pairs (60+ birds).  But, it's not even half-time in Missouri yet!  The adults are still arriving and I have not spotted a sub-adult thus far.  In fact, if you're a new landlord in Missouri waiting for your first arrival this year, you still have plenty of time.  From my records, I can tell you that I've seen sub-adults arriving through the first week of June, so don't give up.  They seemed to arrive a little slower this year and I've actually been happy with that.


It is quite fun to watch the males fall all over themselves when they finally get a beautiful female to land and investigate the perfect home he has chosen for her.  It is truly giggle-inducing.  In his giddiness, his feet barely touch the porch  as he tumbles into the gourd, screeching to her from inside about his own wicked awesomeness in finding *THE* one.   It is quite hilarious when she takes off and he's still inside squawking away about where to setup her perfect nest and the couch.  Moments later, he will realize she has left and will poke his head out.  Lord knows what he's thinking when he finds her gone...after all that effort!
The females, on the other hand, seem to be quite in control and play the 'hard-to-get' part very well, sometimes acting completely uninterested.
Pick me, pick me, PUHLEESE PICK ME!
In the end, she lets him think he's in charge.  But we know who really is controlling their future here. :)

So far, my Great Horned Owl has not made an appearance and we are very happy about that.  I'll keep monitoring throughout the year, but we're pretty well protected now.  And when I say "we", I mean my martins and me.  I'm including Me - for my sanity and my love for my sleep.  The last 4 days have been very loud with the new arrivals.  Their raucous greetings, "Hey, how are ya?", and "HEY, I missed ya!" reverberate off the surrounding hills and my back porch and energize me every morning.
The landscape seemed so gloomy up until about a week ago.  But it has warmed up considerably and the martins are taking advantage by storming the racks and setting up territory.


Everywhere I look things are bloomin'.  It's amazing how much life springs forth with just a few days of warm weather.
Wild plum - one of the first native plants to bloom here in the spring.

I am so happy I decided to put out my mason bees last weekend.  While I haven't found one in the plum groves yet, I have been finding their empty cocoons.  And while my sinuses are not enjoying it, the honey bees are really digging all the pollen too!

Plum blooms and honey bees

Now we know where the idiom, "busy as a bee" comes from.


I don't have any idea what this flower is, but it's blooming too!

The Speckled Kingsnakes are on the move too.  This beauty decided that she wanted to take a shortcut across my driveway, through my lavender flower beds and across the yard to get to her old hunting grounds under my Butterfly bushes.
My Speckled Kingsnake decided she wanted to take advantage of the warm sun and move back to her old hunting grounds, under my Butterfly bushes, across the yard.  I let her pass unmolested - she will eat many mice, moles and other rodents which I don't want around.  Just keep movin' Missy - I should paint, "You SHALL NOT pass" on all my predator guards on my martin poles, just as a friendly reminder.  I've never seen her attempt it, but I'm sure a hungry one would.  Isn't she beautiful?
Dandelions
Even the Dandelions are beneficial to the bees this time of year.  I used to fight the war with them every year, until I realized their many benefits.  Now, we have an easy truce and I see their very fine flower petals everywhere and enjoy their lemony yellow, happy color scattered throughout the landscape.  How could I have ever believed these were bad plants??
Tree swallow pairing is in full swing. 
Tree swallows (TRES) are pairing up and in full battle mode, determined to take not only the boxes I dedicated to them (with the TRES slots), but also the blue bird boxes that I left with the 1.5" holes.  It is all-out war here between the two - may the best men / women win, because there's not much I can do to intervene.  The TRES are ferocious, but then again, they haven't met a truly agitated pair of Missouri bluebirds either.
These 2 pairs usually face off with Nikki and me as we walk past on our daily walks.  I think they would really like to pluck some of Nikki's fur for their nests.  It would probably help with her grooming.
Oh, how I love the sights and sounds of spring moving into summer!  It's energizing and fun to watch everyone get so busy.
I'll be hosting "Purple Martins and Coffee" again this year - 3rd Saturday of each month from 9 AM to 12 PM.  I hope to see some fellow Missourians then - and maybe we can do a 'walkabout', if you like!

Thursday, March 26, 2015

You Have Bunny Mail

"I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."
--Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver - 1899
Missouri's unofficial state slogan is "Show Me" and regardless of how it originated, it is now used to indicate the stalwart, noncredulous character of Missourians.  Since 2010, I have been sending out a newsletter and publishing newspaper articles on purple martins in order to meet Missouri landlords.  I have participated in multiple purple martin forums and seen many of those come and go along the way.  I've seen all types of people on this journey; there are the "keyboard warriors" who are really only interested in sitting behind a keyboard and offering their sage advice to anyone they can get to listen, but they never really "show me" anything.  Others are only interested in sharing their pictures and talking about themselves, never really showing me anything either.  Then there are those who do, much to my delight, really "show me".
One of the first landlords with whom I first made contact in late 2011 when he subscribed to my newsletter was Jerry, located in Troy, MO, approximately 150 miles north east of my location.
How Jerry found out about me, I don't even recall - we've never even met; but he has been in regular contact since that time, letting me know how his colony is growing, issues he's dealing with and his nest check and fledge results. 
In 2011, he had 26 pair and after losing ~20 birds to a Great Horned Owl, he added the red flashing NiteGuard lights to the top of his rack to try to deter it, along with individual owl guards for his gourds.
Jerry's gourd racks.  The GHO just laughed at his red blinky lights.


The lights didn't help with his issues but the wire owl guards did, losing only one to an owl in 2012.  Even with the continued owl problems, his colony continued to grow and he reported 38 nesting pair in 2012, with 116 fledged.
In July 2013, I received an email from Jerry with the subject line, "You Have Mail - Bunny".  My curiosity piqued, I opened it and spewed my coffee on my monitor.  Jerry's owl had paid his site another visit and left him a present (and maybe a message?) on his starling trap.  Who knew that an owl could be so vindictive?
Jerry said, "This is exactly how it was found.  HONEST."
Jerry offered 48 gourds and hosted 36 pair with 153 fledged in 2013 and last year, in 2014, with his colony hitting its stride at 8 years old, Jerry decided to do something unselfish and extraordinary.  He decided to help his neighbor, who lives 1/4 mile away, attract purple martins.  Jerry had sold Bruce his smaller gourd rack, but Bruce was not having any luck with attracting his own martins.  Jerry decided it was time to take some drastic measures to help Bruce start a purple martin colony. 
Jerry started out the 2014 season by only opening 16 gourds at his colony.  As the number of martins grew, so did the fighting.  This was prime real estate and the older adults knew it!  After 2 weeks Jerry was ready to throw in the towel, but he was willing to go one more week.  Finally, before Jerry had to resort to anxiety medication, Bruce reported by 4/22 that he had 7 martins staying at his site.
Jerry happily threw open the doors, offering 48 gourds total.  He finished the year with 40 pair, 174 fledged and lost 4 fledges to his GHO.
And his neighbor?  Bruce ended the year with 8 pair.  How cool is that?
Both Bruce and Jerry are gearing up for a purple martin palooza this year.  They have have each now installed a Super System 24 in their backyards, with Jerry offering 72 gourds and Bruce offering 36 gourds in 2015.
These type of people - these fellow Missourians truly step up to the plate and show me.  I am so proud to live in a state where they don't just talk the talk - they walk the walk.
Fellow Missourians - showing and leading the way for the future of purple martins - you make me proud to be a part of it.  Thank you, Jerry and Bruce - best of luck to you both this year!  Jerry, I look forward to more "Bunny" mail from you.

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.
--Orison Swett Marden

Monday, March 16, 2015

Monday, March 9, 2015

Purple Martins Moving into Missouri-Migration 2015

I'm so glad I decided to pull on my wading boots this past weekend to trudge through the water & muck to raise some housing and a few gourds.  With mud up over my ankles, I kept thinking, I can take my time.  But in looking at the Scout Report on the PMCA site, I can see that will not be the case.  Apparently, the martins are in a hurry this year!
With scouts reported in Webb City, Steelville and Washington, MO on Sunday, 3/8, it looks like we need to be ready for a potential arrival any day now.  There were also reports from southern Illinois and Kentucky!
See the scout reports here: http://www.purplemartin.org/scoutreport/scout.php?Y=2015&S=MO

The PMCA also hosts a very nice forum that has been active and growing since 1997.  So, if any of you are interested in joining the discussion and sharing your stories, you can join here by clicking on the 'Register' button:

http://purplemartin.org/forum/index.php

Joining the forum is free and there are lots of experienced landlords from across the United States, including myself, to chat with.  It's pretty busy right now and you can make contact with other landlords in your area.
Now that the season is upon us, I'll be publishing more short articles with helpful tips and methods that work for me at my site, as well as updates on how my owl encounters go this year and the effectiveness of my owl guards.  A couple of you have already offered to let me share your purple martin stories on my blog also, so look for those in upcoming posts!
Thanks to all of you that are reaching out to other existing landlords and landlords that want to attract martins this year to share what you have learned.  You all are making Missouri a very attractive state for purple martins!
Don't forget about the Purple Martin Workshop, hosted by the Missouri Conservation Department, coming up on March 17th at the YMCA in Mountain Grove from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM!  Contact me via this blog, and I will forward your reservation.
Feel free to print or share the article at the link below to help new landlords:
http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/03/attraction-techniques-for-new-sites.html

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The FOB - Part 2

Now that I'm on vacation this week, the continuation of building the FOB has been my highest priority.  I do not want to wait until March and have to be doing this out in the snow!
As mentioned in my last post (http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-freeze-owl-block-fob.html ), I had cut a couple of 18" arms to which I could test-mount the fencing.  It worked, so this past weekend, (and after sending Mr. Freeze back to the hardware store to get the right size nuts that I needed), I was able to cut and drill the rest of the arms and mount them to the gourd rack.
I then remounted all the gourd arms and made sure the nuts were tightened down so the arms would not rotate and allow the gourd to tilt downward.
The extra 18" angle arms are added to help extend and keep the fencing off the fronts of the gourds on the ends.  Holes drilled in the end of each 18" piece will be used to secure the fencing.
I then mounted the 6' aluminum angle arms between the main arms and carefully measured where I would drill the holes that would allow me to mount those without having to cut more metal, yet it would sit securely on the ends without slipping off.  Okay, I lied - I don't "measure carefully" unless Mr. Freeze insists that I need to.  And he said I didn't really need to, so I didn't.  I SWAGged it and it worked out.  I drilled a hole on each end of each arm and mounted them, butting one against the other.
The 4, 6' aluminum angle pieces are strapped down using zipties after drilling a hole in each end.  The pie-shaped top for this section was cut so that there would be no jagged edges.  They may overlap with the next piece a bit, but that's ok.  I'll also cut some 4"x4" holes in the top.
Right now, everything is secured using zip ties to ensure the design will work.  I haven't decided yet what the permanent solution will be.  I want to put this baby into practice and see what or if I will need to change something to accommodate my propensity to move quickly when doing nest checks while at the same time, not having to brush against mite-infested gourds.
I had been dreading facing two other challenges - figuring out how to get the maximum coverage from above without having to do a lot of cutting and what to use to cover the 'nibbins' when I cut out 4"x4" squares.  Today, the clouds parted and it all became clear.  Once I realized that I needed a 45 degree -pie-shaped section of fence and to do that, I needed to "cut two across, down one", I tossed the ruler, the square and the angle-thingy that Mr. Freeze gave me and started cutting.  I now have a roof over the top that will prevent the owl from dropping down inside the cage.  And I can secure it to the 6' angle arms, that I mounted earlier to keep it from floppin' around.
As for the covers of the nibbins in the newly cut 4"x4" openings, I have Mr. John Barrow to thank for that idea.  I am not ashamed to say that yes, I consult with a lot of friends to 'brainstorm' when I don't have a clue how to proceed.  John sent me some suggestions and armed with that information, I went to our local hardware store.  After the laughter died down from my trying to explain what I needed, they helped me find exactly the right material - easy to cut and cheap!  This trim is used to help start siding - commonly called "undersill trim".  I cut out a piece to try it and it snaps right on.  The best part is it doesn't try to rotate or pop off!  My hardware store sold me a 6' length for $2.50.  Yep, nothing like shopping "local"!  Thanks, John!
I have lots more cutting and some fine-tuning to do and I need another roll of the wire to finish, but basically, this is what my purple martins will return home to.  I'm only now starting to feel a lot better about their return next year.