Purple Martins 2024 & Building a Waterfall Birdbath

This year's purple martin season just flew by. I wasn't able to spend as much time with them as I usually did in previous years, but it was enough to do nest checks and make sure there were no major issues. I wasn't able to do nest checks for the last 4 weeks due to some other unforeseen issues, but, my numbers this year at last count were: 82 pair, roughly 310 fledged (without confirmation of the last 8 nests). They all finally left my site during the second week of July.

Yes, I still had my resident GHO show up...she's kinda like Dory in the movie, "Finding Nemo"...she just keeps swimmin' hoping she'll find & catch a martin one night. 

I'm sure, in the end, she probably caught a few that exited for the magical "Dawn Song" hours, but at least it wasn't a slaughter. The cages continue to work well, especially with the netting underneath. I had a very determined Sharp-Shinned hawk at the beginning of the season, prior to my mounting of the netting. He/She actually came up inside the cages a couple of times to try to catch a martin. But after mounting the netting on the racks, he/she never attempted that again.

Great Horned Owl - May 6, 2024 - 9:00 PM

At the beginning of the season, the purple martins tend to be very noisy - especially during the daytime hours. I've actually seen the owl perched in a tree in the distant treeline during the day, while she observed my colony. Probably planning her strategy. She really does try to figure out the perfect angles.

Great Horned Owl, stalking my colony from the ground. May 6, 2024 - 9:12 PM

You really have to give her an A+ for effort.

Great Horned Owl, stalking my colony from the nearby perching rack. May 7, 2024 - 4:38 AM

I had been meaning to construct a new bird bath and an elderly gentleman that came by to pick up some stuff ended up pushing that decision up in my priority list when he accidentally backed over my old bird bath arrangement. I had been itching to re-do it anyway, given the bird bath arrangements my friends were sharing on social media. So, very frankly, after he destroyed my original setup, I may have secretly cheered. Ha!

Given the various issues I had with my old bird bath (and lessons-learned), I had a better plan this time.

I wanted:

-  a 'waterfall' bath with an upper & lower tray; 

- more water capacity in the trays themselves; 

- a large capacity water container (so I didn't have to keep refilling the trays during extreme heat) ;

- a pump to circulate the water; and

- a better location for birdie access and out of the way of people who should no longer be driving a vehicle.

I found the perfect trays on Amazon (thanks to a friend's help) and hubby and I decided to make a trip to our local hardware store to try to find ideas on how to make the water supply system more self-sustaining. After quite some time walking around, a store associate helped us find a nifty item called a "bulkhead flange". OMG, this thing is awesome! It has a gasket on one side to help seal the hole and a lock nut on the other side so you can tighten it. We drilled the right size hole in the bottom of the tray, mounted it, then used a small length of PVC pipe to set the level of the water for the lower tray. I placed some screen over the hole and used a zip tie to hold it in place. It filters a lot of stuff out before it can get into the water-holding bin.

The bin below is a 20-gallon storage container (Walmart). We bought a 45 & a 90 degree elbow and enough 1.5" PVC to make sure if we made a mistake, we still had some remaining with which we could make more mistakes.

We then cut a short, 6" piece of PVC pipe to add to the 90 degree elbow, for the water return. It's also fitted into the elbow, just tight enough that I can remove the bin lid and reach in and twist it off when I decide I need to clean the bin.

After finding a highly-rated solar powered pump, we connected tubing and the flow control. I thought we would need a flow control since the pump has a 350 gph flow, but turns out we ended up not needing the controller.

 

 

The black outflow gadget mounted in the picture below was able to be mounted to the tubing and it is held in place by some cool rocks I was able to find.

 

 

 

I then placed the pump into the filled bin and we drilled the access hole large enough to hold the water supply line and the power cable that runs to the solar panel. 

 

 

After some "proof of concept" stuff (as Mr. Freeze likes to call it), we have landed on the final product. It did take awhile to get the tilt on the top bath just right and we ended up using some of the leftover composite decking materials to support the bottoms of the trays (they're water-proof & will last forever). 

We used cinder blocks on either side to support the planks & trays and my grandsons camouflaged the blocks with our cool rocks.

My purple martins' reactions to it were rather funny - they're such curious buggers! They would do low & slow flying passes to check it out, but never did land.

 

Best of all, we have a 5-star rating from our many customers. They think the price - "pose for a photo" is more than fair. Clicking on the pictures will launch them into a larger window for better viewing.

Male & female bluebirds

Male cardinal

Female Cowbird - contemplating her life decisions.

Female Orchard Oriole

The look on the field sparrow's face (in the lower tray), when a pair of Grey Catbirds fly in to take a bath (hehe).

Field Sparrow - he/she has earned frequent bather awards.

Dickcissel contemplating a bath

Cardinal and a Bluebird

Blue-winged warbler (yellow bird) and Indigo Bunting

Female Indigo Bunting

Creating a New Rhythm

This is going to be a totally different post on my nature blog than what you're used to - but I'm finally getting back in my groove, so here goes. I hope you'll be patient with me as I work through this. I spent the last year wrapped up in what was (for me, anyway), a very dramatic change to my life - deciding if / when to retire. Sometimes, the decision process was even driving me to the edge of depression. Along with some physical issues that I needed to resolve, I needed to answer some questions for myself - what would I do if I quit my job? The biggest part of my identity has been wrapped up in my career. I like to be busy and I was very good at what I did - and most importantly, I was very happy at my job. How and why would you quit something you enjoy doing? Finally, I made my decision and I announced it in April, 2024...because I decided there were other things that I would enjoy doing equally as much - probably even more.

Friday, August 2nd, 2024 was my last day as a career woman. I am officially retired! My manager setup a very nice "virtual farewell" party (my colleagues were literally scattered across the globe), and all the warm congratulations and reminiscing of the times we had spent together working on various projects brought tears to my eyes and made my heart ache. But not enough to turn back - I had spent a whole year making this decision and I knew it was the right one for me.

My husband took me out for a very special retirement dinner to celebrate. After working all these years (25 years at this company), and 45+ years total, it felt good to say, "I'm done!". But whew, boy - as my access to the company systems was terminated and I unplugged my computer and turned off my phone, I started to feel really unsteady on my feet. It was strangely unsettling - and it felt like my boat started rocking on some rough seas. I knew that it was not because I was questioning my decision, but something else. 

The train ride I took in Germany and half-way there, realized I was going the wrong direction. Yeah, fun times!

 

I stood on my front porch Friday evening and tried to sort through all these new (and surprising) emotions. As I listened to the indigo buntings chirping to each other from the various treetops, (apparently, I have a huge flock of them here), the Bob-white quail calling, a particularly loud Dickcissel and the hot breeze baking my face, I finally realized I was not really 'looking' at the landscape. I started to focus my eyes on my prairie and the flowers blooming, my new bird bath, my garden that needs tending and all the other things that I WANT to engage in now. I realized, I had lost my "working-woman" rhythm. I have had a 5-day workweek with a purpose and a rhythm with a known schedule for the weekends for many, many years. Now my tether was gone and I felt like I was flapping around out here in the wind without an anchor.

 

A Dickcissel checks out the birdbath and tries to decide whether he can trust me.

Saturday, I packed up all the work equipment into my FedEx box and rearranged my desk - another step of closure. I turned my work phone back on to make sure I had it properly set to go and ensure there were no messages waiting for me. A message appeared to let me know I was no longer allowed any access to anything. WELL....I guess I really am done! 

My trip to Salzburg, Austria - yeah, we're gonna climb that hill in the background up to that castle. HA!

Salzburg, Austria - we made it!

I puttered around the house Saturday. One of my goals for my first week was to clean out my closet - specifically, to get rid of some of the work clothes that I will likely never wear again. I had confidently told myself, THAT task should be easy. But, as I previewed the job, I realized this was going to be a very emotional task. Just too many memories tied to these clothes - I remember wearing that skirt in Germany and that outfit when I toured Salzburg, Austria on a 2-week work trip, etc., etc. My heart started to ache again.....NOPE, nope, nuh-uh, I can't do this yet. 

My first trip to Germany - my German ancestor's cellar!

 

Trip to Munich, Germany - King Ludwig's Palace

Sunday, I decided to clean out my bird bath before the mosquito larvae grew into adult mosquitos! Dang, it's SO hot...I told my husband, I should have waited another month or two to retire, so the weather would have been cooler and I could get outside more to vent these emotions. But, as my husband said, "you could have played that game for years, and never retired". 

Today, Monday, August 5th, I realized the first benefit of retiring - no more "Ugggghhhh, it's Monday!" for me! And no more alarm clocks...unless I want to set one. 

I'm still feeling a bit unsteady today, so, for now, I'm trying to take it easy for the first week. Eventually, I'll find all the pieces to put into place so I can establish a new rhythm - a fun, "NOW, I get to do ANYTHING I want to", rhythm. And steady my ship once again.

Me - on a trail cut thru our Tall Grass prairie.

Our piece of heaven - Gobbler's Knob

Look What Mother Nature Dragged In

 I have been keeping a log book of all my purple martin arrivals and nest checks since time began. Okay, well really since I became a landlord in 2007 with my first pair. I love writing in it each season with my mechanical .09 pencil. Something about writing with a pencil that I just love. I start each season by writing on a new page, "Season 20XX". Then, I start writing when the first purple martin arrives. 

This year, my notations began on March 4th with the first ASY male arrival. The only others so far:

• Mar. 12th - 3 martins here;
• Mar. 14th - 6 martins here - supplemental feeding;
  
• Mar. 20th - 11 martins here - supplemental feeding;
• Mar. 21st - rain;
• Mar. 22 & 23rd - 68 & 70 degrees - over 25 martins here.
• Apr. 1st - too many to count....over 50 at least.
  

As I scanned through my notebook to see what was happening on these same dates in past years, I wondered if my son or my grandsons would someday find my Purple Martin notebook and be curious enough to read through it. I'm sure the grandsons would get a good laugh reading some of my notes, knowing how bird-crazy their grandmother was. I wonder if they would marvel at the handwriting and feel a warmth of familiarity and that will open up a flood of memories? The same way I loved to read the notes that my grandmother wrote in her letters and especially in her Bible? I've been feeling rather down about aging and thinking about my own mortality lately and the best way for me to work through stuff is to write about it. Not today, but soon. Moving on.....

Today, there are more than I can count but I'm sure I have over 50 martins now.

Yesterday evening during my walk, I saw my martins zooming just over the tops of my native wild plum grove. There are thousands of these moths swarming the fragrant, snow white blooms. I ran to the house and grabbed my camera and of course, by the time I returned, most of the martins were headed to bed, but I did manage to catch a few on video catching a snack for bedtime. I LOVE seeing this - it's one of the many reasons I love to talk about native plants and how many insects they host. And those insects are now feeding many of the birds here today. Now you can see why I preach, "GROW NATIVE"!

Here's a short video where I managed to capture a few purple martins & tree swallows snagging a moth before bedtime.

 Not only are the purple martins swarming in, so are the tree swallows. I have a LOT more tree swallows than I have nest boxes for them. Check out how many TRES are twittering around my fields right now in the video above.

In 2021, a bluebird and tree swallow pair nested in this same paired configuration and last year, I had 2 tree swallow pairs nesting back-to-back in those same houses. According to the 'rule' book, when setting up tree swallow grid, they need about 100' between their nest boxes, but we love to break the rules here. 

This past weekend, I decided to take my last two spare nest boxes out of the garage and pair them with a couple of nest boxes on other posts.The new nest boxes certainly weren't doing anyone any good in the garage, so why not find out if lightning will strike 3 or 4 times on Gobbler's Knob? 

In the past 2 days, I've also discovered that I have 2 pairs of nesting bluebirds! After the Polar Vortex of 2021, our local bluebird population was devastated. Where I had had 3 - 4 pairs of nesting bluebirds every year prior, I had none in 2021 and only 1 pair last year. I was thrilled to find 5 blue eggs in one nest and 2 eggs in another nest yesterday, and I encountered a male bluebird guarding another nestbox north of my house. Keeping my fingers crossed this is the year they rebound!

Purple Martin Season - 2023; Are You Ready?

Fellow purple martin landlord extraordinaire, John Miller (St. Louis) found the cute picture below and recently shared it on the PMCA Forum. It was just the motivation I needed to get back to writing on my blog. Well, that and a couple of messages from long-time readers.

I took some time off from writing for a bit to focus on some other things. But, as time has gone on, I've realized how much I've missed it and how cathartic writing is for me. What better topic to kick my blog off again than the imminent Purple Martin 2023 season in Missouri!

Reports are coming in from many southern states that they many sites are actually spotting them much earlier than in prior seasons. Knowing that information, yesterday, Feb. 25th, it was 60 degrees here and winds were blowing from the south - literally, the exact conditions that have predicted their return every year. I thought for sure I would see one but thankfully, I didn't. 

 

 

Checking my records, my earliest arrival happened on February 28th, 2016. As I looked at the forecast for the rest of this week, I'm a little concerned they may think it's a great time to mosey their way on up to Gobbler's Knob and confirm their reservations. While it is always exciting and heartwarming to see them arrive, Missouri weather is so danged unpredictable and while I have my colony trained to accept supplemental feeding, it's not my favorite thing to have to do.

Speaking of supplemental feeding, I checked my favorite supplier last week - Rainbowmealworms.com, and they are once again OUT of my favorite cricket size (1"). So annoying. It seems we are still suffering the stupid side affects of Covid - 3 years later.

I haven't seen a tree swallow yet either - normally I see one or two of them arrive with a purple martin in tow. I like to imagine that they met somewhere over the Gulf and teamed up to make the journey north to my site.

My wonderful husband has made sure that I have plenty of housing on hand. How cute is this house??

TRES nest box with slot entrance and bird spikes to prevent owls from landing on the box.

What IS bringing me joy right now is the fact that our local bluebird population appears to be rebounding from the devastating impact of the Polar Vortex of 2021. Remember that? I didn't see any bluebirds that year, and had only one breeding pair last year. From the numbers of them frequenting my yard this year so far, it looks like we will have a much better bluebird year.

So, Dear Missouri Landlords, I hope you're preparing your sites! They're on their way and they are in a hurry!

Don't forget to check out the PMCA Scout Arrival site to watch their progression northwards!

*If you have a Facebook account, don't forget to check in with us at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/purplemartinfanatics

 

Supplemental Feeding for Purple Martins in Inclement Weather

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eliminating Invasive Honeysuckle - Phase 2 Begins

This past summer was so hot & dry and we have been in the worst drought we've ever had on Gobbler's Knob since moving here in 2007. If we don't get some rain soon, I'm not sure our fish will survive the winter freezes. The west side of the pond is, at best, 4' deep, and the east side is down to about 8' deep....with no substantial rain in the forecast.

There's absolutely nothing I can do about it, so I've decided to focus on the plans that we made for this Fall. This past Spring and late Winter, Bob and I spent some time identifying the areas where we need to start the battle with invasive Japanese honeysuckle. Depressingly, it looked a bit overwhelming - my shoulders and neck ached at the idea of trying to manually rake and pull it out. Fortunately, avoidance of strained, twisted backs, is the "Mother of Invention". Bob fired up the tractor - the brush hog on the back and the teeth on the front bucket would work nicely for the first attack. 

After stripping its vines off the trees, uprooting and mowing down as much as we could, we burned some of the spots.

Japanese honeysuckle vines after being pulled back from the trees with the tractor, then brush hogged.

I'm not sure how effective the burning was, but in my mind, we set it back. Besides, it felt good to set fire to something that is trying to take over and kill all the native plants. ha! At the very least, when it greened up again during the summer, it would be nice & low - perfectly setup for phase 2.

It took a great deal of constraint on my part as we walked past the honeysuckle patches this summer as they thrived in the heat, regrowing their leaves and trying to advance again. It is truly tenacious.

The only thing that made me feel better and gave me hope that waiting was the right thing to do, was attending the Missouri Prairie Foundation online classes on how to deal with invasive plants, such as honeysuckle. Their advice from the class for someone with an already-established prairie, spray the honeysuckle in the fall after the first frost (when everything else has died back)- with Glyphosate. My husband had been to all the safety & training classes for using such chemicals/ herbicides so that he could use them as part of his Land Care business and knows how to use this stuff, so he knows all about how they work. These chemicals are important tools to use in the fight against invasive plant species that, if allowed to continue unabated, would wipe out all our native trees, forbes & grasses, in a true environmental disaster. Anyone that has ever driven on I40 into the West side of Knoxville, TN would be shocked at the way the non-native, invasive Kudzu has literally smothered thousands of trees along the highway.

With all the misinformation and emotionalism around the use of "Round Up" and other weed killers, it was so refreshing to discuss this topic with true *Conservationists* in the public domain that had extensive knowledge in its *proper* use.   

Here's a link to the herbicide table and application rates that was shared with us during the presentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RTGGztqSIKR9djB9wrSgVnomKRD4c1YN/view

Thanks to the prep work, the growth stayed very low - perfect for the coming murder rampage I had planned for the fall.

This 75' foot long and 30-40- wide section on our East field has a thick, low mat of honeysuckle. The Indian, Big Blue and Little Blue grasses are struggling to fight through it...and losing. They're only able to sprout around the edges of the advancing honeysuckle vines. This is a view from the south. NOTE: All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

The same section, view from the north.

Further north, a strip of honeysuckle has gotten a foothold...not for long though. Hold tight, I'mma coming. One clump of little bluestem has managed to grow up (far right of the picture, 1/3 of the way down - now light brown-colored)

Another 50' north, around the corner, we brush hogged & pulled the vines down here too. Perfect for the coming spray-a-thon.

On to the west side of the property - this is the area that we cleared out last year (more about that here)
We dragged this cluster out and burned it. The honeysuckle came back, but the grass got a little better start here.

This west cluster in the Savanna is only 40' from the one above.

Now we wait to see the results. I am not a patient woman, but a great distraction is found in shopping the Native Seed catalogs and planning the next phase.

Purple Martin Sub-Adults Arriving in Missouri

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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