Racing Time - Purple Martin Season 2017 Begins

On Saturday morning, March 4th, 2017, I got a phone call around 9 AM.  "Sorry if I woke you", the voice said.  After a few seconds, he finally said, "It's Luther"!  Oh, YAY!  "Hey, I have a scout", he said.  My mind zipped to the calendar and I realized that somehow, March had quietly arrived and I had somehow missed it.  I was excited for Luther - "FIRST TIME EVER, you've seen your martins arrive before mine", I shouted.  He was tickled.  I was tickled.  And then I suddenly realized, I've been far too busy with work to even notice the changes in the season.  Congratulations, Luther & Fonda on the first sighting of the season!  Now, I need to get busy.
Later that day, I decided to go out and enjoy the sun and make sure I had some gourds out, since I had to leave soon on yet another business trip.  It was hard to get into the spirit of the season after having experienced my most difficult year.  But, after raking up 5 bags of white pine needles and stuffing a few gourds, muscle-memory took over, along with the warmth of the sun and a bit of joy started to shine through.
That afternoon, as I hung the last gourd on my rack for the day, I heard that familiar chirp. I looked skyward and found her.  Yes, for only the second time in the history of my colony a female showed up first!  She flew circles around and around me, and as she shared her joy of being home, through tears of joy, I managed to say, "hello Gorgeous, THERE you are!"  I felt so honored, after such a devastating last year, that they would actually return to my site.  It didn't take long - later that evening, she had already found a male ASY to keep her warm at night.  Ironically, my first dude back has a pretty yellow band on his left leg, so I'll be getting his number soon.  Looks like SHE already has his number.

First arrivals - 2017 - the male in the upper left gourd is banded.

As I stood and watched them both circle my site and chirp their happy, "hello" to me, I suddenly realized that I have been way too engrossed in my job to engage in the things that bring me joy.  With all the travel and work stress, I had forgotten that this is where I find my peace and center myself.
It has been almost 3 weeks since that first pair showed up and I now have 20 martins on-site.
I am a pro at not only creating bad habits, but also breaking them and I am getting myself outside every evening when they come home and watching them as they swirl round & round the site, each circle bringing them lower & lower to the gourd racks, until they finally zip right into their own gourds and get instantly quiet for the night.  What a delight!
The Trendsetter has been taken down this year.  Even if I installed a larger cage on it, I couldn't get past the memories of last year and it obviously had become a magnet for the GHO.  Instead of digging yet another hole in the yard though, we decided to use the existing Trendsetter ground stake that is firmly ensconced in a way-over-engineered concrete hole which will definitely hold the new super system.  But first, we had to adapt the 2" square ground stake to the new 3" pole.
We were finally able to find a talented fabricator and he created a new ground stake that would help us transition the 2" ground stake to the new 3" ground stake I needed for the new Super System.
The inner measurement of the square had to be 1 11/16" to fit tightly around the existing ground stake.

The length had to be 27".  The fabricator was very clever in how he built this new ground stake up to exactly the right measurements.  He used the welds and plates to make the second outer tube fit solidly on the inner square tube, finally creating the exact size - 2 11/16"- needed to fit inside the 3" gourd rack pole.

Bob added some grease to the existing 2" ground stake to help with water and ensure the new stake slide on more easily.

Then slid on the new ground stake and greased the outside of it also.

The new rack is in place and all the arms have been mounted.  I still have some work cut out for me - this weekend, I need to install the new cage on this new system, but the worst part is now over.  Each step brings me closer to letting go of the Trendsetter and its memories and looking forward to a new season.

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.

Everything is Out of Sorts Today

We have gotten a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks - most of it in the last 2 days.  Today, I feel like everything is out of sorts, as my Grandmother used to say.  Nothing feels right.  After almost 2 years of drought, I thought we were going to lose all our fish in our ever-shrinking pond this summer.  But now it's overflowing its banks - way out of bounds.  I now have to worry that our bass and bluegill will end up in our neighbor's pond as our overflow has backed up and it drains into his pond.  Get back in your own pond.

The pond is well over 15' out of its banks - we normally ride our 4-wheelers down this path that is now filled with water.

Somehow, with so much rain, grass is growing in our driveway - way out of bounds.  I should celebrate the ladino clover in the middle of it that magically, somehow appeared.  You can't mow this stuff too much either.  After 5 or 6 mowings already, it is still blooming!

Everything is so doggone wet!  Along with 3 launch failures this morning.  They are wet & stinky.  They're not happy about this turn of events.  Neither am I.

3 new failed launches this morning

I swear, even the ticks are parachuting off the door trims and landing on my head.  I don't know where they're all coming from.  I may choose to borrow Nikki's Frontline.
Even Olivia seems out of sorts - all wet and cranky.  As I was filming her playing hide-n-seek, she stopped on the open deck and turned toward me.  As she gazed at my toes, I suddenly realized just how vulnerable my bare feet were.  I decided it was time to start acting like I knew how to River dance and I kept my feet moving until I was safely back inside the enclosed porch.

But at its root, I know why I'm out of sorts today.  After checking on my colony every 10-15 minutes last night, I was alarmed when my GHO flew out from under my deck.  I hadn't seen her come in and when I went to check the videos, I found that she had attacked the Trendsetter in between one of my checks, in a spot where a new fledge had been trying for an hour to get into a cavity.  Check out the video below - she comes in from the left and hangs on to the Trendsetter for an eternity.  In the video, the fledge flies past the camera during the attack, so fortunately, he lives to tell the tale.  Other martins flushed from the other racks too.  Silly birds....stay put!!  Worst of all, my stupid game camera (seen in the video below) is only 12-13 feet away, didn't capture any of it.  I checked it today - 99% battery.  In the heat & humidity, I was tempted to boot it across the field.  Instead, I rebooted it the standard way - hopefully, it won't have anything to capture tonight, but will be able to if needed.

After seeing a video from 12:10 AM on 6/30, it became obvious that Ellie Mae is going to have to visit the unemployment lines.  Absolutely useless.  As have been most of the other methods that people have suggested.  I am out of ideas - it is check.mate.  She will always be here.  Nothing scares her.
Lights - tried it - failed.
Radio - tried it - failed.
Lights + radio - tried it - failed.
Motion detection lights - tried it - failed.
Scarecrow - tried it - failed.
Let's face it; the only protection that works 100% of the time are the owl cages.  I have plenty of alternate food here - rabbits, feral cats, moles, voles, mice, snakes, etc.  Yet, my owl prefers an easy-to-get meal.  Well, she won't get one here as long as they stay behind the cages.  Otherwise I can't guarantee anything. But I won't kill her.  Another one will only take her place.  We will just do the best we can with *preventative* measures and accept that I have a beautiful, very smart owl.  I just need to be smarter.
I will enjoy the positive things.  At least the Compass Plant - after 6 years of waiting - is finally blooming.  This makes me happy today.  Mag.freaking.nificent!!! Beautiful, isn't it?  Definitely worth the wait.

Compass Plant - 6 years old, finally blooming.

So, what do you do when you have such an off-kilter, out-of-sorts day?  Well, you suck it up.  Thaw out some crickets, soak them in some bird-vitamin solution and stuff the wet kids full of food.  Leave them in a bucket until they're dry and put them back out in a dry gourd on the rack from whence they came. 
You stop and enjoy the clasping milkweed that has grown out of bounds - where no seed has been planted (not by you, anyway).

Clasping Milkweed (thanks for ID info to Louise Chambers)

You stop and watch your happy, chattering purple martins chasing down the bug hatches in the field, because despite my owl's best efforts, they are clearly undeterred in their mission to feed their kids, and get them flying.

You herd the fish back into the main body of the pond, by splashing about in your muck boots.  You stop and enjoy the common milkweed that is now spreading out into the yard and tell Mr. Freeze he no longer needs to mow there.

Then you park your butt on the porch with a good book, a glass of wine, a pair of binoculars and your muck boots (just in case you have more launch failures) and watch your colony for the rest of the day.  After all, it is still MY little piece of heaven, and despite all the challenges, I am diggin' it here at Gobbler's Knob.

Purple Martins at Oleo Acres - The Cheaper Spread

Wayne Smith, the owner of Oleo Acres subtitles his farm as, "The Cheaper Spread" because, that's what they used to call the oleo margarine during World War II, when there was a shortage of butter in the U.S.  I met Wayne in my first Missouri Department of Conservation presentation last year.  He's a flirtatious widower and a delightful, curious gentleman who has been hosting a few pairs of martins every year in his old, Trio Grandpa house in Summersville, MO.  He visited my site a couple of times in the fall of 2014 to check out my gourd racks and get pointers on how to trap and eliminate starlings and house sparrows.  He really liked my Super System 24 and the Troyer Vertical gourds and finally decided to order one of his own.
He ordered and setup his new system this past February.
Yesterday, I went to see Wayne, check out his colony and do a nest check with him.  He was giddy as he met me half way down his driveway in his electric golf cart.  I had stopped to greet the dancing, prancing, little bucking goats as they raced my car along the fence line next to the road.  Baaaaa! Baaaaa!  I had to take their pictures and chat with them.

Snowy & Pete were bringing up the rear.

We made our way around his new gourd rack and I was thrilled as I opened each gourd and found either nestlings or eggs.  The totals were surprising to me.  He has 23 pair in his gourd rack and 6 pair in his old Trio house.  In all the years I've been mentoring, I haven't seen a 1st-year gourd rack fill up like that.  I did notice that the gourd racks that were normally on Highway 17, 1 mile north of  Summersville were no longer there.  Wayne informed me the racks had been moved 4 miles away to the owner's children's new home.  Maybe some of the displaced martins had ended up here.  Nevertheless, Wayne said, "I'll take'em".  And he is taking very good care of them.  He was thrilled in our workshop last year to find out he can do weekly nest checks and doesn't miss a chance to lower his rig and check on his charges.  He has 44 nestlings and 60 eggs. 

Wayne is old school - no calculators here!  Just good old pencil to paper and figurin'.

A proud landlord - thrilled with his success and proud of his accomplishments.  Congratulations, Wayne!

Wayne's new gourd rack - 23 pair his first year.

I asked Wayne if he was going to put up another gourd rack next year and he laughed.  "You think I can get more?", he asked.  Yes, Wayne, I'm pretty sure of that.

Romance and Sub-Adult Arrivals on Gobbler's Knob

It looks like the majority of my adult martins are now paired up.  They were working feverishly on their nest-building tasks during the past couple of weeks, however, since this past Monday, they've had to spend a lot of time guarding their cavities and fighting off the new arrivals.
But who says that they can't squeeze in some nuzzle time while guarding their cavities?

I watched this couple for close to 20 minutes. They're so close that it made me wonder if they were old friends from previous years too.

Sometimes, you just need a few quiet moments and a shoulder to lean on.

And everyone has started their annual trek to tear the leaves from Mr. Freeze's poplar trees.  He wonders why his trees won't grow.  I don't show him any of the incriminating evidence such as that in the below pictures.

Many leaves were being shredded yesterday and today.  The bright, warm sunshine is so conducive to nest preparation.  The martins are taking full advantage.

On Monday, April 27th I filed my report for the first Purple Martin Sub-Adult arrival in 2015.  It was late evening and I couldn't get a good picture of him because he kept falling off the porches and perches.  Not on purpose.  The adult male martins were hard on his tail, pulling the little gangster off their cavities and out of their gourds.  I love the fearless and recklessly brave sub-adults.  They are so much like human teenagers - they come home from college, eat all the food in the refrigerator, play their music as loud as it will go, stomp around the house and drag their friends in at all hours while you're trying to sleep, challenge the parents' authority, kick the doors in to find their girlfriends sleeping with another male and in general, just make a mess of things.  These guys are no different.
If this sub-adult in the picture below, manages to hold onto and move into this cavity on the Trendsetter, it will be the first time in 7 years that I've had a sub-adult in that house.  Since it's my oldest housing, I've had nothing but adults in the house for a long time.  So, either some of the older adults moved to the gourds, or they have passed on.

Notice the small, purple feathers on his chest and under the chin of this sub-adult male.  I've learned to spot them just by watching for the martins that are causing the most trouble.  Note his "I'm going to kick someone's butt" posture too.

Sometimes it can be very difficult to spot a sub-adult male in your colony, but other times, it can be quite easy.  The most obvious identifying factor is the classic male clicking that they do to attract mates.  If you see a martin that looks like a female but it's doing the clicking, you can be 100% sure it's a male.  The other identifying factor is to look for purple feathers under the chin or on the chest.  Sometimes, there will even be one on the lower part of his abdomen or under his tail.  They can be very subtle, sometimes only a single feather or two as with this guy.  Other times, it can be quite obvious and the subbie will have a whole head & chest full of purple feathers.
Other identifying traits - watch for the classic 'I'm a troublemaker' posture and usually the one getting his butt whipped by the other males is the youngster that thinks he can swoop in and steal the others'  mates for which they've worked for weeks to attract.

An adult female paired with a sub-adult male.  Once the sub-adults have paired up, they usually settle down and focus on nest-building.  Note the purple feathers on this male's chest and under his chin.

My racks have been filling up for the last 4 days with more martin arrivals.

I can always tell who the newbies are as they try their best to navigate the fencing while still looking cool.

 

Stay on the lookout for the sub-adults at your site in Missouri.  We're halfway through migration at this point.  And if you have a new site, now is the best time to establish a new colony.

Missouri Dept. of Conservation Purple Martin Presentation March 2015

What do you do if you have purple martin fever in the early spring, but your colony has not returned yet?  The cure for the fever, I have found, is to speak with people who are interested in attracting them and share our passion for purple martins!  I was delighted to receive a request from Lesly Holt at our local Missouri Department of Conservation office in early January, asking if I would be available to give a presentation on Purple Martins in the early spring.  With free pizza on the menu and the ability to talk about my favorite topic to a group of 35 people for 2.5 hours, who could say no?
Yesterday evening, I packed up my Troyer vertical and horizontal gourds, all my traps (sans the live English House sparrows), predator guards, decoys, and literature provided to me by the MDC and PMCA, stuffed my car as full as I could and happily made the trek to the YMCA in Mountain Grove, MO.

Brochure supplied by the MDC, co-authored by John Miller, Purple Martin landlord - Forest Park - St. Louis. 
Read the whole brochure here: http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/09/9778_6759.pdf

Another great information booklet, free from the PMCA!

Energized by the sunshine, my favorite tunes on the radio and the prospect of helping numerous people become new purple martin landlords, I arrived at the YMCA 45 minutes before showtime.  I was so impressed with the building and had no idea that the city of Mountain Grove had built such a nice facility!  The beautiful polished floors of the volleyball court made me want to grab my knee pads, tennis shoes and shorts and hit the court again, but then reality returned - I don't play for the Navy Women's volleyball team anymore and probably shouldn't try.  Well, maybe if I were playing with people my own age who were just as cautious about falling down now as I am, and not with the youngsters that were throwing themselves across the shiny floor, sliding so they didn't lose the point.  So, I just contented myself with watching them, knowing that one day, their knees would creak and moan too!  But I digress - it is a beautiful facility for those of you that want to do any special meetings, or just get some exercise.
Lesly, my MDC hostess is a very energetic lady and a bit hard for me to keep up with.  She had everything almost ready and we went to work putting it all together.  With 35 people en route and pizzas to pickup, Lesly was like a little Tasmanian Devil - good thing she was there to help me, or I'd never have been able to pull it off in time!  We had a great time - of the 35 attending, only 5 (including myself) currently have purple martin colonies.  Two of those 5 were also PMCA members and people with whom I have communicated in the recent past - Keith Pelham from nearby Ava and Greta Webb - a longtime PMCA supporter and Purple martin landlord since 1987.

Keith's natural gourds generated a lot of interest from a few folks.  It was nice to finally meet Keith and his wife, Mildred and I was so grateful for his sharing of his expertise with natural gourds - certainly a great option for providing housing for Purple Martins.

Greta (left) - long time PMCA supporter and purple martin lover and Keith's lovely wife, Mildred.  Greta donated the MSS-12 Trio house that you see in the other photos, so I could find it a good home.  I think I've found one already.

Our very animated host, Lesly Holt - Missouri Department of Conservation, ringing the dinner bell.

The attendees are now energized and excited - the timing was excellent - they have the information they need in order to get housing properly located and be ready in time for the 2015 migration.  This was such a great opportunity to reach out to those folks looking to start new colonies and I am so proud to live in a state where the Conservation department is so supportive of our lovely native animals, especially my beloved purple martins.  It's a bonus that I've met even more people who will hopefully become as crazy as I am about "America's Most Wanted Bird".  I'm looking forward to more outreach programs such as this one!

It's helpful to the attendees if you have actual items / props to show them what you are describing.  My display tables were overflowing with all kinds of items.

Break time provided lots of opportunity for one-on-one discussions around the display tables.

I'm a very animated speaker on this topic.  The photographer had a hard time keeping up with me.

Show & Tell!  I had brought 2 verticals and 2 horizontals.  Turns out, I should have brought more!

A large room, filled with prospective new landlords.  I can't wait to hear how their season goes this year!

Special thanks to my photographer, Terry Morrison - it is always wonderful to see you at these events!