DawnSong, Full Moon and Night Owls

"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

Video of a Hatching Purple Martin Egg

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!

Purple Martin Breeding Time

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.

If you'd like to read more about multiple forced-pair copulations, Steve Kroenke has written an extensive post about it on the PMCA forum here:  http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=339&highlight=copulation

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.

Purple Martin Halftime in Missouri

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ1EGgZhFSs&feature=share


Do I have the coolest friends, or what?
 

Springin' to Life

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!

The Final Roll Out

During the warmer weather this past week, I awoke to the sounds of many more martin arrivals.  I could tell they were new arrivals by the way the excited resident males were circling the racks and landing on the upper perching rods, flicking their tails and bouncing their screeching calls off the back of the house.  Summer time with my martins is the ONLY time I am willing to get up early!
After work this past Wednesday afternoon, I decided to make the final roll out of the rest of my gourds.
I had been holding back 1/2 of them for awhile mainly to keep the number of gourds that would need hand warmers to a minimum, just in case the weather turned frigid.  Another reason was to try to force more martins under the new owl cage on the big rack, until I could get out and put up the owl guards on my other 2 racks.  Lastly, I was hoping that some of the arrivals would disperse to some other new colonies and potentially help some of the landlords that I mentor start their new colonies.

I love this little squeaky, noisy trailer.  I bought it 4 years ago for $75.  Bob hates it because it's so noisy, but I love to run around with it bouncing along behind me.  He can hear me coming from anywhere on the property.  I can handle anything with my little trailer - just give me a shovel and some plants and I'm off and digging and planting.  I can also cram over 24 gourds in it.

But I knew I was forgetting something.  Oh yes, my mounting arms!  So, I walked back to fetch them from the garage and decided to do some bicep curls on the way back to the racks with them.  After all, this will save me having to spend 30 minutes on the Elliptical later!

I found a good use for that Parmesan container that has been sitting in the garage for the last year - one of those things I just couldn't throw away because it 'might be handy for something someday'.  Well, it has a new purpose in life!  Why spend money on those little screw containers at Lowe's when you can just re-purpose these?

The martins were very curious about the added gourds.

And for some reason, my camera switched right back to black & white pictures while I was shooting. .  That's okay, I like them as well as color pictures anyway.

Today was so warm and several things are bloomed or getting ready to bloom, so I decided to put out a few mason bee cocoons.

Mason bee cocoons

I placed them on top of some of the tubes that I rolled this winter.  I turned this old file box on its side and removed the top.  It should protect them from getting wet.  I put the cocoons on top of the tubes, so that when they chew their way through and crawl out, they will know where to come back to.  I also put some chicken wire over the open part of the box so that birds can't make a meal out of the cocoons.

Friend Lumber told me I could have all the old pallets out of their scrap yard that I wanted.  I've tucked in some bamboo shoots, elderberry canes, the box of tubes, some bricks I found in the scrap pile, and some 3" PVC with rolled tubes inside also.  I still have some stuff to put in, but it's really starting to shape up!

The number of poles in the yard that Mr. Freeze has to mow around has now been reduced by 2.  He came up with this plan and I agreed.  I love it too!  These 3 cameras are the same distance from each rack they're monitoring and even closer than they were last year.

This year, I'm continuing to use the heavy duty garden stakes from Lowe's for my 2 Deluxe systems, but today I added the fencing on top, to keep the owl from landing directly on the top row.  He left these racks alone last year - for now, I'll monitor, and if he goes after these, I have the frame created and only need to add more fencing.

It felt therapeutic to get out in the sun today and put the final touches on a lot of my projects.  I was rewarded this evening with many more martins coming in to the housing.  I estimate that I'm not quite 1/2 full right now.  Looks like migration is still a bit slower this year, at least, that's what I'm seeing at my site.  It will be interesting to see how things progress this year.