The FOB - Part 3

When the weather warms, so do I.  With outside temperatures reaching 60 degrees this past weekend, I came down with "I-must-get-outside" fever and I finally put the finishing touches on my owl cage.  I am feeling so much better about this upcoming purple martin season, but I think I will refrain from my usual taunts that tempt fate such as, "Bring it on, Mr. Menacing-Evil-Martin-Eater".  You know, just in case he does decide to bring it on.  And something really bad happens.  So, I'll just nicely say, "please don't bring it on".
At a minimum, I know I have made it more difficult for him to easily access my systems and prevented him from playing volleyball with my gourds.  Hopefully, that will encourage him to hunt elsewhere.  Time will tell.
Altogether, I estimate we have added less than 30 pounds of hardware; that includes the fencing, the aluminum brackets that extend out over the corners, the cross brackets to support the top, and the entrance hole covers.
My plan right now is to lower the cage and maneuver inside for nest checks.  If that isn't realistic, I may have to cut off a foot of the vertical wire so I can more easily slide in & out of each section.

The cage will ride up and down with the system.  For now, I have left the full 4' of length on each side, but if maneuvering in and out becomes a problem, I may cut off at least 1' from the bottom. From this angle, you can see the brackets that span from corner to corner, providing both support and a place to anchor the top wire to keep it from flopping in the wind.

There are ten 4"x4" entrances cut out on each side and have undersill trim has been placed on the bottom of each entrance to cover up the sharp nibbins left by the wire cutters.

If you're interested in reading more details about the construction of the cage, you can go to these two posts:
The FOB - Part 1: http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-freeze-owl-block-fob.html
The FOB - Part 2: http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-fob-part-2.html
Current migration status shows that the purple martins are on their way with a report showing one in Saint Amant, LA.  Track their migration here on the PMCA site: http://www.purplemartin.org/scoutreport/

Monitoring Your Purple Martin Colony With Game Cameras - A Browning Trail Camera Review

Last year I learned a hard lesson.  Never say, "never" when it comes to owls, snakes, racoons, and other predators that could prey on your purple martins.  Never.  As I learned, you don't really know what's going on with your purple martin colony unless you are either sitting outside all night or you have positioned multiple game cameras around your site.  If you ignore the possibility, then you could end up with lots of dead martins and even lose your entire colony.
Sitting in my yard all night was just not realistic for me, so I chose the latter option.   I quickly shopped for game cameras after noticing that my Trendsetter was not filling up like it had in years past and finding a GHO feather in my driveway escalated my sense of urgency.  After reading the reviews for multiple brands and shootout results (good site to see all trail camera reviews here), I decided to try out a Browning Trail Camera - Recon Force XR Series (BTC-2XR).  It has some nice features, including long detection range and the ability to record video.
My purple martin gourd rack - 7-2-2014- 8:20 PM.

My first impression when I opened the box is that the camera is small and compact and the casing has a high-quality, heavy duty plastic feel.  My second impression was, "whoa - this takes a LOT (8) of batteries!".

The Recon Trail Camera User Interface

After loading it with batteries and an SD card, I was able to poke around the very user-friendly buttons and quickly setup the date and time.  I had read about all the features while shopping, but I hadn't realized there were features within features.  Read on to see what features I find most attractive in this game camera.
Features
The camera has 4 capture modes: Trail Cam, TimeLapse, TimeLapse+ and Video Mode.
...

Recovery of E049

While doing the fall cleanup on the east side of the house today, something glinted at me from the rock garden. Earlier this summer, Bob had found an owl pellet just below our deck railing and had laid it on the rocks for me to take a look at later.  I had forgotten about it.  Until today.  Something shiny drew my attention back to it and my heart sank as I knelt to investigate.
I had been meaning to pull it apart, but with all the issues I had this summer, I couldn't bear to do it, fearing I would confirm what I dreaded most.  But nature has a funny way of exposing herself sometimes.  The rain did for me what I was unable to do and lying there in the owl pellet was a little silver band, demanding my attention.

Federal Band # 2501-29649 recovered from the owl pellet

As I pulled the pellet apart, I noticed the tiny white bones in the mix.  I read the Federal Band number: 2501-29649.  This Second-Year (SY) male was born here at my site on June 13, 2013 in Troyer Gourd #35.  He was banded on 6/24/2013 at 21 days old.  He was re-sighted here on May 4, 2014 and was courting an SY Female in a Troyer vertical gourd on a different rack from the one in which he was born.  I have no further records where I spotted him this year, so I have no idea at what point he became a meal.

As I poked through the pieces, I knew it was inevitable that I would find the yellow band but its appearance still broke my heart.  His Missouri Band number was E049.
To think, this guy flew all the way to Brazil and back during the fall & winter of 2013-2014, only to arrive at my site and die as a meal to a GHO.  It makes me sad.

I am so grateful that I have always spent a lot of time out with my martins and could detect when something was wrong.  Even happier that I followed my instincts when I knew something was wrong.  Otherwise, the damage may have been a lot worse.  It doesn't make it any better for E049, but it did for the rest of my colony.
I am so grateful that my martins headed back to Brazil in mid-July as this year was exhausting and stressful.  I haven't been around my gourd racks yet, except to lower them for a storm.  Soon, when the weather cools, I'll be taking measurements so that I can start putting our planned design together for the owl protection that we will need for next year.
I know the owl has to eat too, but he really could go catch some of the annoying and very large moles we have here.  They would certainly make a heartier meal for him.  Have you seen our Missouri moles?  Perhaps I should put some bells on the moles that I catch so that they can keep my owl distracted next year.  Bad, old owl.

Caught in the Act

I've been monitoring my colony pretty closely and even ran the owl off the perches on Friday, 7/4.  I had to leave for a business trip last Sunday however, so my husband was leaving the radio and porch lights on to try to keep him frightened away.  Upon returning today I pulled the game cards out of my cameras and was quite alarmed to find these two new videos of the owl attacking my Trendsetter.  I've had a lot of fledging going on this week, so I suspect he was after the new fledges that often hang out on these porches at night.  He obviously left empty-clawed but, he's definitely shaking up the tenants of the house.

This one happened early in the evening on 7/7/2014.  You can click on the YouTube icon in the picture and embiggen them for better viewing.

This one happened 2 nights later.

Looks like I'll be staying up late in the evenings until all the martins are gone now.

The Night Belongs to Thee

I have been a busy purple martin landlord lately and not in a good way.  Between erecting owl guards and preparing for my presentation at the Missouri Department of Conservation in Houston, MO last week, I haven't had much time to write about it.  But now that the adrenaline is subsiding and the fear is alleviated with the installation of the guards, I now have some time to share.

Ever since mid April, I felt something was wrong in my colony.  I had found a Great Horned Owl feather in my driveway, but really wasn't too worried as it was over 200' from my colony and I wasn't seeing the classic signs that everyone talks about (plucked feathers, martins leaving the site right before it gets dark, etc.) 
 
What I was seeing were very few martins in my Trendsetter-12 house.  This was unusual because my oldest martins always took up residence in my Trendsetter first.  Afterall, it was my first *official* purple martin housing.  But something felt off and not quite right with my colony.  So, I ordered a Browning Recon game camera and put it out on April 21st.  Every day I would retrieve the SD card from the camera and find nothing recorded on it, except the daytime activities of the martins.
I got lazy and around May 3rd or 4th, I quit the daily retrieval of the card thinking that I was just being paranoid and silly and had read too many posts about owl attacks.  On Friday, May 9th, I decided that I really needed to check that card and I pulled it.  But I still didn't review its contents until just before bedtime that night.  As I opened the card and saw the timestamps on some of the pictures, my throat began to tighten.
Then as I started opening the pictures, I thought, "This can't be.  Everything was fine up until now, so why am I suddenly seeing timestamps for pictures at 4:23 A.M. for May 6th?"  As I viewed the pictures and my brain processed what had happened the night of May 6th (3 days prior), I felt something tighten around my waist and I couldn't swallow - I thought I was going to be sick.  I couldn't believe that a Great Horned Owl was attacking my housing.  The whole reason I had bought the Trendsetter was so that an owl can't reach into the cavity and pull martins out.  What he can do though as I was informed that night, was exactly what this Wise Old Owl was doing - he was beating his wings against the house, attempting to get the martins to flush, right into his talons.

Great Horned owl attack on my Trendsetter-12 housing.  Note the time. Dawnsinging starts about this time every morning at my colony, so it is likely that the owl heard the martins and was drawn to the housing.

The terror that had arrived at my colony on the morning of May 6th could have been enough to frighten the purple martins into abandoning that house.  And who could blame them?  I would certainly pack my stuff & go if I were them!  I wasn't as much worried about them abandoning though as I was about keeping the remaining ones safe.  I couldn't justify serving up a buffet to the owls.

I hastily made a post on the PMCA forum with the pictures and was rather surprised to see how many people were still awake and willing to help, advise and provide empathy at such a late hour.  I was willing to do whatever needed to be done to protect my colony.  It had been 3 days since that attack and there were no guards on any of the housing or gourds and there was no telling when he would be back.  I was frantic.  What if he came back that very night?  Was he successful on the night of May 6th?  I had no way of knowing.  Lots of good suggestions came rolling in, but there was only one reality - I needed to stay up and protect my colony that night and figure out how to get guards installed on all my housing the next day.
It was quite an experience staying up all night with my martin colony.  Owls hunt by sound and I can see why he was attracted to my colony.  My martins are noisy!!  By 3:30 A.M. the next morning, I could hear a Barred Owl on the east side of my colony and the Great Horned Owl (GHO) on the northwest side of my colony.  Hoot, hoot, hooting away.  I was happy as long as I could hear them calling, but when they became silent was when I became worried and started scanning my colony with my spotlight to make sure they weren't visiting.  Fortunately, they weren't.
I had always read that a GHO would displace a Barred owl, but as frequently happens here, my site is often the exception I guess.  By 4:30 A.M., I could hear my martins in the sky singing their dawnsong.  What an awesome experience.  It was a very strange feeling to hear martins in the black, velvety sky but only be able to see the stars.  I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.  It was one of the most beautiful things in the world.  Dawnsinging, the darkness of the night, stars and owls.  I have never felt more alive.
By Saturday afternoon, I had driven my husband crazy and we finally deployed the cage on my Trendsetter.

It took about an hour for my martins to adjust and trust it, but they finally did.  We used "Welded Wire Fabric", 2x4" from Orscheln's Farm Store and cut out a couple of wires to make 4x4" openings in front of each of the house entrances.  I have also added tubing over each of the entrances to make a more bulky landing spot for each of the martins.  I am happy to report that the house has martins and eggs in every cavity, except one.  That's a pretty good occupancy rate, given the circumstances.


By Sunday afternoon, we had erected some temporary guards on the gourd racks as well.  In thinking about how the owl had approached the housing and the wing span on the GHO (39 to 43 inches), the idea with these guards is to interrupt his wing space.  Pretty funny looking, eh?

I had always read about landlords erecting their owl guards and their martins seem to relax after installing them.  I thought, "how would you know"?  But now I have experienced it - you know.  Somehow you know, you feel it and you hear it in their song and see it in their activities.  They are safe and they know it.  Fortunately, the owl has not been back since that night.  I'm hoping it stays that way, but I'm no longer naive enough to believe that.
We are working on a plan for more permanent owl guards - something that won't interfere with our view during the off-martin season (can be removed), something that won't need a 20' ladder to install, something that won't interfere with storage, and will be user-friendly for nest checks.  My husband is brilliant and has come up with some ideas to fit our particular situation.
I am much more comfortable with knowing my martins are safe now.  But I have learned a few things.  First, trust your intuition and act on it.  And do it before something really bad occurs.  Apparently, we all live within the range of a barred owl or a GHO.  Don't get lazy.
Lastly, 3:30 A.M. is a special time with a purple martin colony, especially when dawnsinging starts.  It is wild; it was an ethereal experience and it is Mother Nature in her purest form.  I loved it.  I'll be up a few times every year now to enjoy it.  For that, I am thankful to the owl for the rude awakening.  I will remember you are out there always and you sir, YOU own the night.