Purple Martin Housing Cleanup: To Clean or Not to Clean?

Well, it's more nuanced than that. After finally having some frost, we've reached the perfect weather window in Missouri where I can start cleaning out my purple martin gourds and storing them.

Since we live in Missouri, where we often get snow & ice in February & March each year (right at the time the purple martins are arriving), I cannot wait until then to clean my gourds. So, I do it every Fall, after the first frost. This year, I thought of my past militant attitude towards cleaning out my gourds - **sparkling clean and NO spots!**, and decided that I wanted to share some thoughts on how I now clean my gourds and clarify some nuanced thoughts on *why* I clean them.

My required gourd-cleaning protection (click on picture for an enlarged view)

For the last 2 years, I'm finding that I'm not quite as concerned as I used to be about getting my gourds sparkling clean. I AM focused, however, on killing the mites, fleas, etc. and their eggs. But, it's not ONLY  for the benefit of the health of the purple martins that will nest there next year. It's also a concern for where I store the gourds. I store them in our shop where I have other things that I would like to keep mite-free. Things like our side-by-side and my native wildflower seed storage bins. A bout of warm weather would result in those eggs hatching and not be a good thing for me (or Mr. Freeze) to encounter.

A couple of years ago, I bought this 100-gallon livestock tank (100-gallon livestock tank - True Value) and I love it! I can soak 14 to 16 gourds at a time in it at a time. Put them in to soak one day, then wash them out the next - and I don't have to kill myself trying to clean all 84 gourds in one day.

100-gallon Livestock Tank from True Value. 16 gourds in the tank

Many people just pull out the old nest material and rinse & dry their gourds / housing. And if you store your gourds in a place where you don't care if there are future outbreaks of such insects, you probably don't need to worry about the Bleach soak. But if you do care, then here is what I do:

• Remove all the old nesting material. 
• Rinse out the remaining loose material.
• Add water and bleach (enough bleach to make a 10% bleach-to-water solution).
• Shove all the gourds into the tank and ensure all the air bubbles are removed. 
• The longer the gourds soak, the easier they'll be to clean out. 

I'm finally done for this season, just in time for the freezing winter weather. I do have a few repairs to make this winter to some of my gourds (broken tunnels, torn treads, etc.), but I can take my time with those. 

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Supplemental Feeding for Purple Martins in Inclement Weather

In late March 2011, I was staring out my window watching the falling rain and sleet and the thermometer that was falling even faster. I was also keeping watch on my eight purple martins that had arrived 10 days earlier than in years past and wondered how I would ever get them through the bad weather that as predicted for the next 8 days. There would certainly be no flying insects available on which they could feed in that cold, wet weather. I had read the stories on the PMCA forum about how people had trained their martins to accept supplemental feeding of crickets and eggs but I was torn over the whole “nature taking its course” and praying, or helping them. 

As I watched their wings droop further, it suddenly became very clear for me; either make the effort and try to feed them or grab a bucket and pick up the dead ones in a few days. There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to do the latter. So I grabbed a handful of plastic picnic spoons, a plate of crickets, gathered up my determination and stood in the middle of my colony with mud up to my ankles and sleet in my face and flipped over 40 crickets to my sad-looking martins. Suddenly, the magic happened and I have never again had to worry about having to pick up buckets full of dead martins in my yard when Mother Nature plays a cruel trick on our migrating martins.

If you’re interested in providing supplemental feeding yourself, here are some pointers how to train your martins, based on my experiences as well as from the other experienced landlords that worked with me and encouraged me along the way.

First, be prepared. A lot of us know about when our martins will arrive and what the average weather is like during those months. My first arrivals come during March, so by February, I know that I should have approximately 5000 crickets in my freezer (I order from ReptileFood.com). An adult martin can eat 40-50 large (1”) crickets a day, so base your cricket supply on that estimate times the number of days of expected bad weather. I usually have a box or two of the cheap, plastic picnic spoons in my pantry as well. When the weather drops below 45-50 degrees, or there is constant rain then there are no flying insects on which the martins can feed. You’ll know they are stressed by observing their physical appearance. Usually they are fluffed out and have very droopy wings. 

Cold weather in late March - notice the martins on the porch with drooping wings

 

During the first day or two of bad weather, they may not take the food, but by the third day, it’s time to start flipping. Try to pick the warmest time of the day and the least windy. Position yourself so that you can flip the crickets up high and in front of your martins. Do not flip the crickets directly *at* the birds as that will cause them to fly away from you. I only flipped one cricket at a time as this was their first introduction to crickets and I didn’t want to waste any until I saw the first one take one. I only had to flip 40 to get them started, but I have heard other landlords have had to flip over 100 to get the ball rolling.

I also called out a word (much like training your dog) every time I flipped a cricket. You’ll know why later. After the first martin went after a cricket and returned to her perch, the others slowly started joining her and swirling around in the rain as I flipped over 200 crickets to them. It takes a lot of energy that they can’t afford to waste at these critical times, to fly and catch a cricket. So my next goal was to move them to “tray feeding” so they wouldn’t waste their limited energy. Tray feeding is a different way of feeding for a purple martin as they usually catch their food on the fly.

As they all slowly circled, grabbing flipped crickets, I started flipping the crickets up on my rooftop. Some would finally land and grab the food that fell there. Some of it bounced down onto a tray just below the edge of my roof and they all started landing there and eating the food that bounced off my makeshift ‘tray’. I also added scrambled eggs in with the offerings (crickets can get expensive when you’re trying to feed 20-40 birds). I first had to flip the egg pieces in the air to get them used to accepting egg, then I could add it to the tray where they could eat it later.

During subsequent feedings, I would prepare the eggs and crickets and call the martins out of their housing to the feeder, using my special word that I had used during training. It worked every time. 

This season we once again started another 8 days of bad weather at the end of March. The first day the weather snapped down cold, a male martin flew right up to me, squawking at me. I knew that he was one that remembered the drill from 2 years ago. I fed over 6000 crickets and 5 dozen eggs over the course of those 8 days to 22 martins. I did end up losing 4 of them, but I could never be sure if those 4 were “mine” or were migrants, or they simply died of old age. But I ended up pulling the rest of my martins through those cold, long, miserable days and I can’t tell you how happy I am about that.

If you have never tried to feed your birds, I encourage you to try it. My best advice is to be persistent and keep trying. You already know what is the worst that can happen, so you can’t lose anything by trying. My martins bring me great joy every year. I figure providing them with food during desperate times is the least I can do to repay them. 

More good information on Supplemental feeding can be found here on the PMCA forum:
https://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27225

Purple Martin Sub-Adults Arriving in Missouri

For those of you trying to attract purple martins to your site, NOW is the prime time in Missouri!

On April 29th, 2021, I reported a male sub-adult (SY - second year) arrival at my colony. Sub-adults, or "SY" (second-year) birds are the birds that were hatched last season that are just now reaching our borders during migration. 

I also spotted 3 sub-adult females, but the PMCA asks that we report the sub-adult males, since they're a wee bit easier to identify. Well, "easier" is subjective.  Some sub-adult males are easy to identify because they have large groupings of purple feathers (the indicators of a male martin) speckled about their chest & throat. For others, it can be more subtle.

When I first started out as a landlord, I spent hours taking pictures and following a bird that I suspected was a sub-adult male, only to realize it was a sub-adult female. It takes awhile - especially, because the purple feathers that you're searching for can be few and far between or so many that it's obvious. When I absolutely couldn't identify him using his feather markings, I would just wait for him to make the typical male 'clicking' sound and THAT was the indicator that sealed the ID game! 

In this photo, the SY-Male on the left is checking out an ASY-Female on the right. There are a couple of small purple feathers on his chest that are glowing in the sunlight, another one under his left wing and a couple behind his legs.

In this photo below, this SY-Male has several purple feathers on his upper chest that makes him a little easier to spot.

In the photo below, the SY-Male has several small purple feathers under his chin. He is standing guard over his SY-Female (R).

This SY-male in the photo below was super-easy. He already has almost the full adult head covered with dark purple feathers.

In the photo below, the sub-adult female on the left is probably paired up with the ASY (adult) male on the right.

If you're a new landlord this season and awaiting purple martins, now would be a good time to start playing the dawnsong at your site. You can play it on a portable CD player, from your car's CD player with the doors open, from your house with the windows open or from your cell phone. It should be played in the wee hours of the morning (starting about 5 AM through until about 9 or 10 AM). Then start playing the daytime chatter. Purple martins like to be around other purple martins and that will help draw their attention to your new sites.

If you're still not sure of your ID skills, just watch for a bird behaving like an out-of-control, hormonal teenager. That would be the SY male.

Easy DIY Purple Martin Gourd Rack

I'll be writing another blog post soon about the current status of purple martins here at my site. But I wanted to get this information out to all of you that love to create things and are handy with wood while it's still early in the season.

I recently saw this DIY gourd rack on a purple martin forum and I think it is absolutely the best DIY gourd rack I've ever seen. I asked the gentleman who built it to share his plans and detailed instructions and he emailed me the following instructions & pictures. There are also links to all the supplies that he used at the bottom of this post.

For those of you that would like to build this gourd rack, here ya go:

Instructions for how to build this gourd rack, provided by Jimmy Dugan, Purple Martin Fanatics Group

As far as the carriage system is concerned, I loosely followed the Anderson cc page.

Link: http://www.anderson.cc/hazer.html?fbclid=IwAR3xJAgzzTwTRtJ89IM5c32TfpIsjVZD--fAq8xzE5TA6r-E4epUXPYZZAI

I used two, three foot 2x6 boards. The carriage system is held together using, 3/8" threaded rod, washers and nuts.

The actual system that rides on the pole is 1/2" outer diameter, 3/8" inner diameter aluminum tubing. The tubing is cut based on the size of the pole to be used.

Installed over the tubing is 3/4" pvc pipe which actually does the "rolling" up and down the pole. This is cut shorter than the tubing so it doesn't chafe on the wood as it goes up and down. 

View inside the carriage system, showing the ¾” pvc pipe that was installed over the 3/8” aluminum tubing

Closeup showing the pvc pipe as it rolls against the steel pole.

The 2x4 cross members are approximately 26” long and screwed to the carriage. The gourds are attached to the 2x4 cross members using 3/8" threaded rod. You can buy the 3/8” threaded rod in 6 foot lengths and cut them in half so they are 3 feet long. The gourds attach to them using nuts and washers.

 

 

Once you build the carriage system, the possibilities are endless as to what you mock up to hold gourds/houses. Mine in particular has 16 S&K Bo 9 gourds attached to it.

A nut is installed on either side of the gourd neck to hold it in place.

To keep the 3/8” threaded rod from slipping back & forth, nuts are tightened up against the 2x4’s on each side.

The pole that was used was galvanized steel. At the top of the pole, I cut a notch for the 4 inch diameter V idler pulley which I bought from Amazon. The pulley is attached to the pole by using a 3/8" bolt.

It is kept centered using spacers on either side.

The winch can be purchased from Harbor Freight for $20. I believe it is rated for 1k lbs. It's bolted directly to the pole as I couldn't find U bolts that would work for it.

The cable is attached on the opposite side of the carriage system from the winch, to an eye bolt.

A small pulley is mounted to the top of the carriage to keep the cable from rubbing against the carriage system.

I put two perches at the top of the pole again using 3/8" threaded rod.

The pole is in a ground socket that I built using pvc trim board that I cut to width. I like the idea of the socket so I can remove the pole and there will not be a ground stake still there. 

I could have used all stainless hardware....but I didn't want to spend a million dollars. So I used zinc and galvanized stuff.

Well, Jimmy - it certainly looks like a million dollar setup! I bet the martins think so too!

Links to the things I used. 

Round Tubing: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-36-in-x-1-2-in-x-1-16-in-Aluminum-Round-Tube-801247/204274002

Hand Winch: https://www.harborfreight.com/automotive/winches/hand-winches/12-ton-capacity-hand-winch-62592.html

3/8” threaded Rod: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Steelworks-3-8-in-dia-x-6-ft-L-Coarse-Steel-Threaded-Rod/3128769

​V-Groove Idler Pulley:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KMHQYVJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

PVC Pipe:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Charlotte-Pipe-3-4-in-dia-x-10-ft-L-200-PSI-SDR-21-PVC-Pipe/3133103

 

 

 

 

Purple Martin Season 2021 Has Begun

My first purple martin 'scout' of this new season arrived on March 8th, 2021. It was 65 degrees and winds were out of the southwest - great migration weather. The awful polar vortex that hit the southern states just as migration began created a worrisome start this year with thousands of birds dying, including untold numbers of purple martins that had just literally landed at their home sites. 

But it appears that some things are returning to normal and it was such a joy to see her circling my colony Monday afternoon. I still haven't seen any bluebirds since I found 3 dead in a nestbox on Feb. 13th. I also usually have tree swallows that arrive with my first purple martin, but I still have not seen one of those yet.

Missouri landlords should be raising their houses now - you can check out the Purple Martin Scout Arrival map live at this link to see if there are any reports submitted near your area. If you would like to report your own arrivals, you can use this link and create an account if you need to to enter your data.

https://www.purplemartin.org/research/8/scout-arrival-study/

This is today's map (my report is the purple dot with the red circle around it).

I hope you have a great season and as always, you can reach me via this blog by commenting below or email me at purplemartin @ centurytel dot net.

 

This year will be my 7th year having to deal with a Great Horned Owl and a Barred Owl here on Gobbler's Knob. The first couple of years were tough and we almost threw in the towel. But, with lots of support from other landlords who have 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt', we have reached an (un)-easy alliance with the owls.

Since many landlords either are in the same situation, or soon will be, I decided to make a video describing exactly how we built the cages that protect our purple martin systems. I've listed the materials and I also address some of the most common questions that we commonly receive each year about the cages.

 

Here are a few of the many videos I've recorded of the GHO attacking my colony. I did not arrive at deciding upon this solution easily - it was difficult and a lot of work.  If anything else would have worked, I would have done that first. But this was ultimately the only solution that saved my colony.

 

July, 2015: https://youtu.be/12lQopYkRdk

 

GHO attacks Trendsetter and gourd rack: https://youtu.be/RexdpWmqgLY

Building an Owl Excluder for Purple Martin Systems

 

 

 

 

 

Living the Quarantine Life on Gobbler's Knob

With the final mass gourd cleanup completed and 2 coats of Pig Snot (my favorite car / motorcycle wax) applied to my predator baffles (which makes them super-slick!), I can now say that the Purple Martin Season of 2020 is officially closed. 

We had a great Purple Martin year - 80 pair with over 305 young fledged. This year, everything seemed to get started about 2-3 weeks later than usual. On average in past years, we would normally only have  2-3 pair still trying to fledge their young around the first or second week of August. This year however, I still had around 25 pair up until August 18th. A very late season. 

We had 4 confirmed kills by the Great Horned Owl - a 75% decrease over the last 6 years and that is definitely something I can live with. Last Fall, we opened up the East field even more by cutting down a few Eastern red cedar trees, and it worked - the hawk attacks were also greatly reduced. I was so relieved this year to have fewer successful attacks. While the trees were well over 150' away from the colony, in the prior years, the speedy little Sharpie and the Cooper's hawks had learned to use the trees for cover on their approach to the colony.  

With a lot less stress this year from hawks & owls, it was much more fun to watch the martins fledge their young - they haven't a clue about Covid-19 and what the world is suffering through right now. But they do have their own worries - owls, hawks, bug supply, and climate change, just to name a few.

Bob and I notice that when my purple martins are here, along with the nesting bluebirds, tree swallows, chickadees, tufted titmice and others, we hardly ever see any bugs flying through the yard. The birds seem to keep the population of flying insects very controlled.

It is only after the nesting season ends and the purple martins have left for Brazil that I start to see more bugs around my yard again. Thousands of dragonflies appear, the Pennsylvania Leatherwings cover the Bidens and multiple wasp species descend on the Goldenrod. 

Check out the video below, taken A view into some of the September & October bugs:

After all the other native wildflowers have gone to seed, the New England Asters, goldenrod (did you know that Missouri has over 23 species of goldenrod?) and bidens bloom & continue to provide food for the bees:

And the fields light up with a sea of yellow and purple flowers. Yes, life is good here on Gobbler's Knob.

Pennsylvania Leatherwings on Missouri Bidens

Bumblebee with filled pollen basket on Goldenrod

A Wasp party on Goldenrod

Bidens, Indian grass, Goldenrod and Pickerel weed provide cover and food for insects, quail and all the other wildlife that choose to live on Gobbler's Knob.

Won't You Be My Neighbor

Today was one of those days where it seemed like all the stars aligned and all the forces in the universe came together to make everything just perfect with hardly any effort at all. As David Gray, put it in the song, Babylon, "Saturday I'm running wild, and all the lights are changin' red to green." That was my day. 
My purple martins have had a rough week - the rain and cold weather have not been optimal for them to find insects. Along with all the sub-adult arrivals the last few days, the adult males have also had to fight off the teenagers trying to run-away with their females. But, we made it through the worst of the weather, only losing 1 adult male. Today they woke up to a warm, foggy, misty morning and somehow they knew it was going to be a good day to find insects, so while waiting for the weather to clear, they hung out on the racks getting acquainted with some of their new neighbors.
So far, we've had 9 peaceful nights with no Great Horned Owl appearances. We're not missing her at all and today I celebrated our brief reprieve.

While it was warm out, I decided to check on the honeybee swarm that I captured 7 days ago. To my surprise, they had already built comb in about 1/3rd of each of 8 frames. All that work completed in only 7 days. Filled with nectar and pollen, I was mesmerized with the beautiful white comb and the perfect hexagon shapes. I could watch the building of the combs all day long. I've been pretty happy to find this swam seems to be reasonably gentle so far - they're turning out to be good neighbors.

With all the rain we've had, I was thrilled when I noticed all the new milkweed in the bed where we had kept the potted milkweed plants a couple of years ago before moving them out into the fields.  Over 50 new common milkweed plants have sprouted from the broken rhizomes when we pulled the pots out, a few asters and 8 new butterfly milkweeds. Unexpected neighbors, shouldering their way through the mulch and reaching for the hidden sun today. I learned a couple of years ago that common milkweed really likes moist areas and butterfly milkweed prefers dry feet, so if it keeps raining, I'm not sure the butterfly weed will make it here.

But the best surprise of the day came when I noticed a female bluebird going into a nestbox that has been paired with a tree swallow box for the last 2 years and never had any occupants.

I currently have 14 nestboxes for other birds here as well - some of which I've setup with the slotted entrances so the tree swallows can enter them, but the slot keeps the English House sparrow out. Unfortunately, it also keeps the bluebirds out, so I have round hole boxes for them set around the property as well.
When I discovered in Jan. 2018 that this Barred Owl was using this bluebird box on my trail as a lunch & go, I decided to move the box to the field, away from the forest and pair it up with a tree swallow box.

I had heard it would work but wasn't confident of that, since I had witnessed the ferocious battles between the tree swallows and bluebirds in my yard before.
But today, on my perfect day, guess what I found? The tree swallows had 4 little white eggs in their own little nestbox, reserved special just for them and a bluebird pair had moved into the paired nestbox that faces the opposite way and they have 5 eggs. Finally, after 2 years!

What were the odds that everything would come together in such perfect harmony today?
I'm sure we'll eventually see my GHO, we'll have to deal with the evil little flies that kill monarch caterpillars, we'll have to keep watch for varroa mites and English House sparrows.
But today, there was peace & harmony on Gobbler's Knob.  

Purple Martin Arrivals - 2020 Season Begins and Prenesting Gourds

My bluebirds are a bunch of Divas. For about 5 months of each year, they pretty much have this whole 23 acres, along with 14 nestboxes to themselves. But when the first Tree Swallows arrive in Spring, the bluebirds become a bunch of whiny babies and fly from nestbox-to-nestbox, trying to dominate each one and bully the Tree Swallows away from *their* site.
My friend Jeff in Rogersville, Keith in Ava and myself always have a small competition going each year regarding who will get their martins back first. On Saturday, Feb. 29th, I had already rolled out 2 gourds since I just *KNEW* all three of us would be getting our martins back on the same day. It was a classic weather pattern for my arrivals - winds from the south and 60 degrees.
When I searched the skies first thing in the morning, the first tell tale sign was a little teal-colored, "orca of the skies" zooming around my backyard. In years past, my tree swallows have always been the first to arrive here on Gobbler's Knob, usually followed closely by a purple martin...or three.

Several of us that host tree swallows along with purple martins have nicknamed them "Orcas of the Skies"; one obvious reason is their coloring, but the biggest reason is how ferocious and brave these little birds can be when a hawk enters their territory. They are fierce and are a great bird to host along with purple martins - all they need is a nest box - similar to a bluebird's nestbox.
By Sunday, I still had no martins, so I checked the Purple Martin forum and found that Jeff and Keith BOTH had received several martins on Saturday already. I guess my purple martins are going to be slackers this year. Probably hanging out in Sikeston at Lambert's - "Home of the Throwed Roll", thinking they really meant, "Home of the Throwed Crickets".
With the weather still looking warm for last week though, I decided to go ahead and put out a few more gourds.
Since I get a lot of questions about pre-nesting gourds, I decided to make a short video to show how I do it. Please note - I use only gourds, but you can also pre-nest any housing that you provide.
It not only helps keep the martins warm by providing some insulation when they arrive in early March, it also gives your gourds / housing a more "lived-in" look and will help attract new martins, since they are "secondary cavity-nesters". Click here to read more about the tradition shift in their nesting habits.
Pre-nesting also ensures there's enough nesting material in the bottom of your housing to prevent the birds from slipping around on the flooring as well as preventing 'splayed-leg' syndrome in the nestlings.

Materials to NOT use:
- Do NOT use cedar chips / shavings. While they are purported to repel insects, they also absorb a lot of water and a wet nest is just as deadly to nestlings as are too many mites, etc.
- Do NOT use green grass - it has too much moisture in it and it will mold & rot in the nest.

Recommended Materials:
- Eastern White Pine needles - they 'shed' water and don't absorb it.
- Corn fodder -  some landlords that live near corn fields have reported their martins using this for their nesting materials. It also sheds water
- Straw - use only dry straw

Here's a video I made this past weekend, while waiting for my purple martin arrivals:

An ASY male martin did arrive at my site on Saturday, March 7th. That purple dot right in the middle of the Mark Twain National Forest - that's me - in the picture below.  You can report your arrivals too, to the Purple Martin Scout Arrival Study linked here:

Get ready - the purple martins are coming!  If you're a new landlord this year, you still have about 4-6 weeks to get ready, so don't panic. Obviously, the sooner the better - you want to do it right the first time!


 

Purple Martin Sub-Adults Arrive in Missouri

It seems that I finished getting my new rack up just in time. This year, to better protect my martins and make my nest checks easier, I've replaced my two Deluxe Gourd racks with a third Super System gourd rack. With drilling four extra holes on each of the Super System racks, I'm able to have 28 gourds on each system, maintaining my 84-gourd colony.
I'm thrilled that I'm not only going to be able to more easily do nest checks this year, but I also won't be fighting with the owl cages and donating a quart of blood every time I do a nest check!  So far, things have been very quiet where the Great Horned Owl has been concerned. No signs of feathers or attacks yet.
On Saturday, May 4th, I was able to identify my first sub-adult male arrival for the 2019 season.

Last night, just as the last of the light was fading away, a fast-flying group of martins circled my site three times. They were tightly grouped and all their bellies were very white. I laughed as I suddenly realized they were a gang of sub-adults, coming in like gangbusters - they folded their wings and dove into my colony. They tumbled through the openings in the cages and proceeded to perch on the gourd arms.
They must have thought they would really impress the girls, arriving like a gang of thugs - reminded me of this scene from Grease 2:

All thirteen of them were sub-adults and they acted like they didn't have an established gourd yet, indicating they must have migrated & arrived here yesterday. It became very noisy in the gourds as the light dimmed and I could barely make them out trying to enter the already-occupied gourds.

Sub-adult arrivals, with a couple of ASY bachelor males.

Today, as dawn arrived and the rain continued, making it a cold, wet miserable day for humans and avian alike, I was able to see that indeed, I now have a lot of sub-adults on-board....that are getting ready to wreck chaos here on Gobbler's Knob.

Free showers today. May sub-adult arrivals.

 There were definite advantages to the timing of their arrivals though.

May sub-adult arrivals.

With the weather being incredibly cold and rainy today, some of my "old-timers" who knew the routine when this weather arrived, decided to let me know today that it was time for the eggs and crickets to be served.
Thinking it was a good training opportunity for the new SY arrivals to learn how the diner works here on Gobbler's Knob, I took advantage, thawed some crickets and cooked some eggs.
After some refresher flipping training, I dumped everything on my tray and called them to the trough. In a "monkey-see, monkey-do" fashion, some of the SYs landed with the adults and watched them as they gobbled down the food.

Note the little SY female to the far left.

This little SY female was especially curious and very smart. At first, she tried to steal the food from the ASY female on the right. She knew whatever was going on was a good thing, but she didn't quite understand it yet. But she watched closely and studied hard.

She watched the ASY female closely.

 After 10 minutes of watching and unable to steal the food from the ASYs, the little female decided to give it a try. I was thrilled! She will remember this routine now.

Finally, she tried it out.

A few minutes later an SY male (left of her) arrived. I'm not sure if he is HER mate, but he watched her intently and I'm sure she'll teach him the ropes. If he's nice to her that is.

SY male and SY female learning how to eat at the feeding tray.

Bob said, "you know they all probably ate yesterday, right? Now they're just being little freeloaders". "Yes," I told him, "but I never pass up a training opportunity". And sure enough it paid off.
Hoping for much better weather in the coming days - for my birds and my bees.
I saw this raccoon today toddling across my yard at 2:30 PM. His/her home must be flooded out for him to come out like this. I let him/her pass as I felt kinda sorry for it.

I have no idea yet how many purple martin eggs I have, as my yard seems to be knee-deep in water & mud. We need a break - soon.