Purple Martin Numbers are Increasing in Southern Missouri

What a gloomy, gloomy day!
As I drove into my driveway at 5:30 PM Monday night , I noticed a flock of birds circling my site.  As I came closer, I noticed they were all purple martins.  I jumped out of the car to verify and to my delight, I was greeted with purple martin chatter as they started to dive down into the housing.

Over the next 10 minutes, I counted them as they dropped like rain and dove straight into housing compartments, their feet barely touching the porches.  I managed to count 35 martins, but I'm sure there were more.  Some of them - whether on purpose or accidentally - went into already-occupied housing and from there, hilarity ensued.  Invading, third-wheel females are treated no kinder than the extra males that accidentally enter a gourd where a paired couple has established residence for the year.  The growling inside a gourd indicated that a bird was about to be ejected and as the skies darkened, I carefully watched the shaking, swinging gourds to make sure a wing didn't get sideways in the entrance causing me to have to quickly lower the racks and help them free themselves before nightfall.

Some of the older residents of my colony will occupy the house first.

I observed 2 females and 3 males being thrown out on their ear and while their pride was wounded, physically they were okay and they eventually found an empty gourd where they could rest and stay warm. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, some of the martins made their way to my "feeding tray" (which is really a piece of 1x10 lumber laid across the end of my deck rails) indicating that they wanted some food.  I put out crickets, but after taking only a few, they flew off.  That was very good news as it indicated to me that they were getting some food, even though the weather has not been that great.

My martins have learned that during cold, rainy weather when bugs won't be flying, they can count on the crazy Bird Lady of Licking to provide them with scrambled eggs and crickets.

Wednesday afternoon I stuffed 16 more gourds with Eastern White Pine needles and put them out on the racks.  I like to keep the number of cavities to a minimum at this point in migration, just in case the weather turns lethal and I need to put hand warmers in the cavities where birds are staying, but after seeing the additional birds arriving Monday night, I thought I should get more out on the racks.

As I lowered the East rack, I heard the familiar growling and saw a gourd shaking.  Since no one flew out when I lowered the rack, I carefully shielded the exit hole as I walked in front of that gourd and opened the lid.  There were 2 females, both in a defensive position, but neither was willing to budge from the gourd.  I had to wonder how terrific the male was that could cause these 2 ladies to become so embroiled in a brawl that they wouldn't voluntarily leave the gourd.  I carefully removed each one from the gourd and after doing a once-over to check for injuries and bands (there were none), I released them both.  One of the females was definitely older than the other, as indicated by how dark her coverts were.  She wasn't about to easily surrender her territory to the younger, pretty girl that was making moves on her man.

Last night, as I ate dinner I wandered over to the window and watched the martins returning.  By 6:40 PM, the resident female in the same gourd where I had released them earlier, had the younger female on her back with her right wing sticking out of the gourd.  Seriously, this male must be a prince or something as these 2 females were just not giving up their claim to that gourd!  I knew the younger girl wouldn't be able to pull her wing back in and extricate herself before nightfall so, I rushed out to help her.  A martin stuck in an entrance of a cavity can become owl-food or freeze to death during the night, so there was no doubt in my mind that I would have to run the risk of flushing the whole colony from their cavities that late in the evening so I could release this very determined, yet defeated little lady. 

After releasing the 2 females again, I was able to count all the martins as they returned to their nests.  I was able to confirm there are now 41 martins here as of last night.  With very warm weather predicted for this weekend, there will probably be many more arrivals as they start to push northward.  I'll be in my driveway with bags of pine needles and fill the remaining 33 gourds on Saturday and Sunday.  Anyone want to stop by and help?