"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
It's funny how certain things stick in your head, yet you can so easily forget other significant events. Is it a conscious effort on your part to store it in your brain because it was such a catchy statement, or was it significant because of the friend that shared the information with you? Many, many years ago, as I was learning to grow native plants, a friend told me, all plants go through a "crawl, walk, run" phase, meaning the first year they crawl, the second year they walk and the third year they run.
I have always remembered that and as my plantings mature, it's become more evident what she meant. The crawling and walking stages were slow. I would explore around my plantings, carefully digging around the mulch in my bed, looking for evidence of survival and spread.
I have waited and waited and now, everything is not only running, it's marathoning. I'm so excited!
I love Missouri Wildflowers in Jefferson City and they carry just about everything you can imagine under the sun in Missouri in both seeds and pots. While Hamilton Native Outpost is closer to me and they do have great native wildflower & grass seed that I have purchased, they do not carry potted plants. MO Wildflowers is almost 2 hours away, but I love to go and visit their nursery twice a year to see what treasures I can find.
In Fall 2014, I bought these New England Asters from them in small, 3" pots. Last year they grew taller than me and this year, they have spread across the whole landscape area. I originally planted 5 small plants and they have more than quadrupled.
My favorite native bush is St. John's Wort. Now in its 5th year it has exploded with growth and there are so many new seedlings sprouting up around this one this year, I'm having to pull them to keep it from taking over. Being so wild about it, I bought 2 others in Fall 2014 also, and now I'm wondering if that was such a good idea.
My native Wild Bergamot (also from MO Wildflowers), installed from 3" pots in 2013 has decided to spread and is trying to dominate also. These Bee Balm plants were given to me by a friend 4 years
ago. They are spreading like wildfire this year, blocking the view of
my yard statue. I hope it and the Wild Bergamot claim even more
territory, eliminating the need for me to weed.
The Cardinal flowers I purchased from them in Fall 2014 are getting an early start this year and have more than doubled their size. I just purchased another dozen and 8 here and 4 more in the field!
Three years ago, I purchased Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) plugs (32 total in a flat) from Monarch Watch. You can go here and read about their program: http://monarchwatch.org/milkweed/market/ I potted them for a year, then installed them on the bank. These 4-year old plants have not only covered the banks now, they are spreading into the lawn. They are aggressively claiming more space and I'm quite okay with that - no more mowing here, and the Monarchs will have a field day when they arrive.
This year, I purchased 64 plugs and Bob disked this field where we just planted them before the rains began. Ok, I admit, it doesn't look like much right now, but you just wait.
Prairie Blue-eyed grass has popped up everywhere - which is perplexing because I never bought that seed - we've only burned the fields and voila' there it is! Hello, to my dainty, beautiful blues!
But best of all, the Indian Paintbrush has spread and it's leaping out of the field and showing off all its wondrous, red-blazing glory.
And with all the rain today, it's really popping! As with everything in my life, all I do is centered around the 3 main
loves in my life - either my husband, my dog - Nikki, or my purple
martins. The native wildflowers we planted draw in thousands, yes,
*THOUSANDS* of insects - a lot more than any non-native blooming
flower. As the weather turned a bit rainy in the last few
days, I noticed my martins flying lower in the fields with their tree
swallow brethren, catching the 'food' that is swarming over the native
plants.
To my delight, I found the Wild Bergamot in the field has started blooming!
The pond was 'full' this morning when we woke and the martins were quiet - hunkered down for the deluge we expected today. This year, I'm offering only 75 cavities (last years I offered 84) and right now, I estimate I am 75% full with around 55-60 pairs. Hard to believe it's not even the end of April yet!
During a break in the rain, I grabbed my camera and ran outside to get some pictures and videos. The martins took the opportunity to exit their cavities and forage for food. But the tree swallows decided to put on the show. I'm not sure if many more just arrived today, or a new group decided to try to oust the settled-in residents. But the 30 minute pause in the rain resulted in a Tree Swallow Battle Royale. Listen closely and you'll hear the martins circling behind me as they come out to feed also.
As I wandered the field a couple of Canadian geese landed in the pond and while I usually don't photograph them, as they flapped their large wings to take off, I thought of a purple martin friend we lost this past week. He loved to do bird photography in his retirement and as I thought of him, my heart said, "Take the shot...Tom would". I was very happy with the way they came out.
The rain started again shortly after they disappeared in the wet, warm fog south of our field, so I retreated to the porch. It only took another 45 minutes and my pond had expanded waaay beyond its boundaries. I'm hoping my fish have not decided to pack their bags and use this opportunity to relocate to the neighbor's pond just south of us.
At least for this summer, all the animals at Gobbler's Knob - and most especially my Purple martins and my tree swallows will have a bug buffet from the dragonfly populations that are sure to result from all this water and the bazillions of bugs that will visit all the flowers that now running their own marathon in our fields.
...or maybe a better title is, "when two passions collide". I dunno. The 2016 purple martin season was my most challenging season I've ever experienced. It was a year where my old self and my 'new & evolved' self encountered each other and had many, many heated conversations. Being passionate about wildlife means you have to accept many pleasant and unpleasant things dealing with life and death.
Our 23 acres, nicknamed "Gobbler's Knob" is a true wildlife sanctuary. A sanctuary where all native wildlife, whether predator or prey, is welcome. I am blessed to have the opportunity to work from home and be able to
observe the predators that frequent my back yard and even more
fortunate when one hangs around long enough for me to get its
photograph.
We have coyotes.
We have foxes.
We have quail (as well as many other native birds) nesting here.
We have Red Shouldered hawks.
We have an extremely fast, aggressive Sharp-shinned hawk that visits my site early every spring to help herself to the tired, migrating martins and manages to bring out the very best selection of my Navy vocabulary.
We even have our beloved national symbol visit my backyard, only 50 feet from my office window - the American Bald Eagle.
But one predator in particular - my resident Great Horned Owl - has worn out her welcome and this past purple martin season she pushed....nay - she strained the limits of my love for her. The problems I had with her this past year drove me into deep introspection and forced me to explore my commitment to being a good steward to all things wild, possibly even shutting down my colony.
I totally understand that each and every animal is
subject the predator-prey relationship. That is the one law to
which all members of nature are bound, not because they signed on to
it, but just by the very virtue of their existence, they must abide by
it, including me. My reasons for not killing this owl have always extended far beyond the fact that it is illegal to do so. No, I have not killed her because of my own principles - I strongly believe we need predators to maintain the balance that Mother Nature requires.
Since 2014, this GHO has been attacking my purple martin colony. Actually, after reviewing my records and with the benefit of hindsight to see patterns, I think it has been longer than that - maybe as early as 2012, but this past year (2016), she decided that she liked this buffet setup and upped her game.
With my monitoring setup, I knew when she first arrived at the beginning of the 2016 season. But I was prepared - I had everything caged in and I was determined she would get even less meals here this year than she did in 2015.
"*PREVENTION is KEY* - install owl guards BEFORE you have a problem. Radios (and cds with recorded 'home' noises, including a shot gun),
flood lights, red lights on top of racks, scare crows, reflector tape,
even setting off firecrackers - all of those things may temporarily
work for a week, even two or three weeks, but he/she will be back."
As she escalated her attacks every week and became more aggressive, I also escalated. At every turn she made, I was there with a counter-measure.
Everything we tried only worked for one to three weeks, depending on the
counter-measure we put in place. I was often getting up at 3:00 A.M. to scare her off when she came for her early-morning raids; but still my principles held - I refused to kill her. But I also have a full-time job and couldn't be out there every night to stop her and she took full advantage of my absences.
During the first week of July, she decided it was time to increase her success rate and learn how to get past the barriers that had worked very well the least few years. After returning from a business trip in mid-July, I was stunned to watch a video of her 'walking' around the exterior of the cage attached to the Trendsetter, probing the 4"x4" openings I had made in the wire, meant to make it easier for the martins to enter and exit the wire caging.
It was then that she managed to truly bring me to the edge of a cliff that I didn't want to be on as I watched the next 2 videos. My heart broke, my chest constricted and my throat went dry. Despite everything we had in place, she was flushing them out of the housing and grabbing them as they exited their nest boxes. Those that flushed were doomed.
In one of the videos, she dragged one of the martins through the cage hole and landed near the
game camera, where I could hear his screeching until he died. Sobbing doesn't even begin to adequately describe what I was doing when the video ended.
**WARNING - both videos below are difficult to watch, much less listen to....
As I watched from the depths of my despair, my anger flashed beyond boiling. I thought, "I am done- I have failed them....I no longer know what to do." Even though it was daylight, I was ready to hunt her down and kill her. My brain was on fire, while my heart simultaneously ached. It was obvious the caging on the house was too close to the porches, but with the wind load here in Missouri and the fact it had worked for the last 2 years, I hadn't been concerned about it. I stormed through the house, swearing that was the last martin she was going to eat. She had gone too far.
I went outside to vent my sorrow to the wind and the trees. As I stood in the yard near my gourd racks, the activity in my colony that day belied the horrors of the night before, making me feel even more devastated. These resilient birds who had to have heard the dying cries of their brothers, were busily flying to and fro in the hot, bright sunshine, feeding the remaining nestlings. It was almost surreal.
My most immediate concern was for the welfare of the remaining nestlings in the house, so, hoping that she wouldn't want to get her wings tangled up with some light-weight twine, I used some mostly-empty bottles to weigh down some twine around the remaining nests. It worked to save the remaining adults and nestlings.
As the heat intensified that day, I watched the videos above again & again, torturing myself I suppose for losing this battle with the owl. I deserved the torture. It took a long time to sort my feelings out - months even, but eventually, I realized I was actually more angry at myself than at her. She was doing what any owl or other predator for that matter, would do if they found an easy meal and her mind was only focused on two things - her own survival and that of her owlets which she was likely feeding at the time.
After all the anger, sorrow, despair, crying a river of tears, I received a few emails from a few friends that made me decide I need to pick up my pieces and move forward. So how do I go forward now? I have decided that I need to remove the Trendsetter and replace it with another gourd rack, specifically, a Super System gourd rack with a 3" pole, which will allow me to mount a larger cage that will extend further from the openings of the nests and withstand the Missouri winds better. My Trendsetter has a lot of sentimental value for me, but even extending the cage on it at this point still allows her to flush the martins out at night and this house is obviously now her favorite target.
I have learned so much about owls in the last 2 years and if a new martin landlord asked me about owls today I would tell them, "*PREVENTION is KEY* - install owl guards BEFORE you have a problem." Once an owl discovers that there is 'food' in those gourds / nestboxes, there will be no stopping him/her - he/ she will be relentless. Radios (and cds with recorded 'home' noises, including a shot gun), flood lights, red lights on top of racks, scare crows, reflector tape, even setting off firecrackers - all of those things may temporarily work for a week, even two or three weeks, but he/she will be back and nothing will stop the attacks. The most absolute best guard against an owl is to setup owl guards as preventative / proactive measures, instead of having to always *react* and be on defense.
The first step to healing is to forgive yourself. As Dana Ripper from MRBO emailed me, "hopefully you still produced a gazillion babies though"! It made me smile. It was the first positive thought I'd had on this topic in a long time. My friend Greta Webb emailed me and said, "We can learn more from our mistakes than from our successes." Thank you Dana and Greta...you set me back on my path.
My New Year's resolution was to forgive myself for my mistakes. With that, I'm moving forward to the 2017 Purple Martin Season, with a look back at the 2016 - which doesn't look like it was so bleak after all.
Enjoy the video.
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.
"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
One of my fellow purple martin landlord friends, Mike Salcido in Texas took this video this week of a baby purple martin hatching from its shell. During a nest check, Mike discovered that the egg was 'capped' (another egg had hatched in the nest and a part of it rolled over and stuck to this one, make it a double-walled shell). Babies are unable to break through 2 layers of egg shells and will die inside, if the extra cap is not removed quickly.
This is just another example of why nest checks are so important, so you will know the timing of hatching.
Enjoy the video - it's the first time in my 9 years of hosting martins that I've gotten to actually watch the process! It's guaranteed to make your day.
Thanks for sharing, Mike!
For the second day in a row, I have had to rescue a female purple martin who had been forced down in the wet grass by several, hormone-driven male martins. It's mating season here on Gobbler's Knob and across several states. With the rains and dew making the grass and grounds very wet, it's important to keep an eye out for females whose feathers have become so wet that they can't take off. They are extremely susceptible to hawk attacks and racoons if left on the ground overnight. You can often determine that one is down by just observing your colony - watch for multiple males landing on one spot on the ground or flying over that same spot many times.
If you find a downed female in your yard, use a towel to toss over her when trying to catch her - this will help calm the colony as you retrieve her as well as stopping her from trying to flop across the grass to get away from you. Put some pine needles in a 5-gallon bucket, per her in and cover the bucket with a towel and a board across the towel (to keep her from flying out inside your warm room). Place her in a warm environment and as my friend Louise Chambers (PMCA) reminded me this morning, you can turn a heating pad on low setting and place it under the bucket - that's key - do not place it in the bucket.
This blog entry was written by my good friend in Corpus Christi, Mr. John Barrow - purple martin landlord expert and all-around, good guy extraordinaire. His wife, Louise, is pretty cool too.
Thanks for sharing, John!
A lot of birds are migrating into South Texas right now. For several
weeks we have watched kettles of hawks and kites flying overhead. Those
raptors do not cross the Gulf, but rely on heat thermals to carry them
from South America to places farther North, utilizing as little wing movement
as possible.
Late yesterday afternoon I did a nest check on my
martin systems. Looking overhead, I saw several large kettles of Mississippi Kites
migrating northward-several hundred for sure in 3-4 kettles.
Later, as darkness approached, I saw some of my older birds leave the
housing and fly up to intercept groups of incoming migrant purple
martins. Most likely the newcomers are SY (sub-adult) birds. From my small slice of
earth along the Texas coast, I estimate that the number of SY arrivals
was between 150-200. They literally filled my view of the sky, and
returning ASY birds were typically followed to our systems by 10-12 new
arrivals.
Tonight with the arrival of strong north winds, the
late evening show repeated itself. Several hundred new arrivals filled
the sky--most targeting our systems as a stopping point. With nesting in
progress local birds will try to lead most of these arrivals to a
nearby tree to roost or a vacant housing system to settle down near
(looks like about 20 chose the oak tree adjoining my property).
I
mentor at least a dozen landlords in this area--all are capable of
attracting to their sites what I have witnessed tonight. The same is
true for contacts I know up the Texas coast and in to LA. What I have
observed signifies a large General Arrival, with a high percentage of
the SY population entering the USA in advance of, and with the
occurrence of the passing frontal system. This is the heaviest
arrival of SY birds I have witnessed to date, indicating that general
migration is still running about two weeks behind, and with the
opportunity to extend huge arrivals into the USA for the next two weeks,
before migration begins to taper off.
Still lots of time left for
those seeking martins. I would say when these birds arrive mid
continent in 3-5 days, *Halftime* will have been reached in Missouri.
John Barrow - his signature reads, "TEAMED WITH A MARTIN GODDESS". Methinks Mrs. Barrow is a very fortunate lady.
Mr. Barrow's colony in Texas
Purple martins on the Texas coast. One of these could start your colony.
Via Mrs. Barrow on the PMCA forum: Neat video taken today on the Texas coast - these
birds were in the road due to cold temps which left the asphalt the
warmest place to be. The martins look so huge next to the smaller Cliff
or Cave Swallows! Hopefully any traffic took it slow. Here in Corpus
Christi some of our martins were in the street this AM, overnight temp
was in high 50s, and daytime temps got into 70s, providing some good
feeding weather for our friends. It was doubtless cooler up the coast
at location of video.
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!
It seems like it has been forever since we have seen a warm day. 'Warm' is relative though isn't it? I was thrilled when the thermometer hit 42 degrees this morning and threw open the windows. With temperatures forecasted to be rising to 64 degrees by next Thursday, I am preparing to deploy my mason bee tubes. I have been cutting and rolling tubes for weeks now.
It's also a fun project for kids to do. I have 40 mason bee cocoons in the refrigerator that are 2/3rd through their food supply, so I'll be monitoring the weather very closely and checking out the wild plum and cherry trees to watch for signs of blooming.
On our way to 60 degrees today, I'm headed out to prepare both the mason bee housing and my purple martin housing. Last year, my purple martins arrived on March 10th, and with warmer days now in the forecast, it's time to pull on my mud boots, trudge through all the mud and muck left by the melting snow & ice and put up their housing.
For now, a few quick pictures!
Materials: Ruler, regular #2 pencil, scissors, tape, parchment paper (I also have a roll of unbleached parchment paper, not shown in this picture). The pencil is the exact diameter for the mason bee holes.
40 mason bee cocoons, waiting for the right temps and food.
My holding can. Arranging different lengths of tubes together presents a 3D effect is supposed help the mason bee more easily find her home.
As of today, I only have 5 nests with young that have not fledged. It has been getting pretty quiet around here during the day. About 90% of my colony has left to start their migration. I've been very surprised during the evenings when 6-7 nests of newly-fledged martins return with their parents to stay the night. I counted at least 30 birds coming in tonight, with 7 new fledges cramming themselves into one gourd. Hopefully, they've been told the stories and will keep the partying to a minimum tonight.
I have been fortunate this year with only 2 or 3 jumpers. Without banding it's difficult to tell whether it's the same guy. Actually, I don't know that I should call him a "jumper" so much as a "failed launch". I had to chase him around the gourd pole twice in the rain and by then we were both soaked, so I put him in the garage until he dried. The rental price for anyone staying in my garage is to hold still while I take a photo. He looks stubborn. Almost defiant. Good.
With all the owl trouble and fledging going on, I haven't had much of a chance to keep up with nest checks and really thought everyone had at least left the Trendsetter. So, when I saw an ASY male & ASY female martin entering house cavity #1 yesterday, I was surprised to find these four darling, 7-day old nestlings that will not fledge until around 8/5 to 8/9. The mom & dad of these kiddos deserve medals for courage and bravery. You've all seen the nighttime videos. They lived it, yet they hung in there when the beast was shaking and beating his giant wings against their home, threatening to make a meal out of them, yet here they are feeding 4 little winged wonders! Hooray!
Speaking of my Great Horned Owl, we have not had an attack for 8 nights now. Yes, a full 8 nights. I can't even begin to express to you how happy it makes me to pull the cards out of the game cameras every day and find...nothing. Nothing except normal, delightful daytime photos & videos of my martins flitting around trying to get their stubborn children to fledge. Normal! I do enjoy normal!
I'm not sure if the addition of Ellie Mae to my yard along with the radio & bright lights has kept him away, or my random visits at night with Ellie Mae, or just the fact that the noise level has significantly dwindled here over the last 8 days has caused him to avoid us or lose interest.
Whatever it is, I'll take it, but I can't really breathe a sigh of relief until the 4 darlings pictured above are winging south with their parents. Until then, Ellie Mae and I will continue to be vigilant. August sure seems like a long way away right now.
