Purple Martins - Lessons Learned This Year

As I completed my last two nest checks of the year and reflect on the lessons I've learned this past season, I can think of a couple of things I wanted to share:
Lesson #1: Always assume you have an owl problem. If you don't have one right now, you will soon enough.
     a.  Plan accordingly. Protect your housing.  Period.

Lesson #2: I have learned that a combination of nest changes and Sevin dust (added to the new, fresh nest) work best to help reduce the population of mites.  This year, the mites were particularly numerous.  I also learned that they will rain down on you when you are winching down your gourd systems.  Wear a hat or scarf over your hair.

Lesson #3: Always assume that a mite has landed / crawled on you after you have conducted a nest check or lowered your systems to inspect the gourds / housing.
     a. Given that you are now contaminated, know that anything you touch will also be contaminated.  Hence, the lack of pictures for this post.  There was no stopping for a photo op after learning this lesson.
Last month, after doing 20+ nest changes in one session, I grabbed the hose to wash my arms off with high-pressure water.  One week later, I picked up the same power nozzle to wash out a few containers and found the nozzle covered with mites.  It was a good thing Mr. Freeze didn't touch that nozzle first, or he would be on medication and covered with insecticide right now.
Lesson #4: Fill a bucket with water and have a bar of soap and an old rag next to it to use after nest checks. In the interim, put a supply of alcohol-soaked (Isopropyl alcohol, not the drinking kind) in your nest-check kit.  I had thought about putting in an outside shower, but the cost was going to be too steep.  I may still put in one of those camping shower bags, but for now, a bucket of water, a bar of soap and an old rag will have to do.
Lesson #5: DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING after conducting a nest check!  Usually, after completing a nest check, I try to calmly walk back to the house and strip in the garage while  Mr. Freeze opens all the doors, turns on the shower and gets out of my way.  It could only turn out badly if I had to touch any of the aforementioned items on my way to the shower.  But I'm only calm on the outside, so that he doesn't panic - on the inside, I'm screaming, "OH.MY.GOD!!! Get out of my way!!!".  Funny how a hot shower & soap can soothe that all away.  :-)

Not Quite Yet

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.

Playing Chess Instead of Checkers

Make no mistake over this writing - I am extremely distressed over this issue, but this is how I deal with my distress - I write to make myself feel better. When I was a small child, my grandfather taught me to play checkers.  As I matured, he taught me to play chess and it was obvious that chess required a lot more thought, planning and strategy in order to win.  I loved it, especially the knights and bishops pieces as their moves were the more complicated and aggressive on the board.  I never became a pro at the game, but I learned a lot from it that I now apply to real life.

If someone or something presents a smart move to you, make a smarter move in return.  That's the way I feel about my dealings with this owl.  I'm still not 100% sure, but believe my owl to be a Great Horned Owl - one of the most aggressive owls around.  In chess, the best games are played against a knowledgeable, respectable challenger.  Well, I think I have met quite a respectable foe in my current battle to protect my martins.  They don't call them "wise, old owls" for nothing.

Great Horned Owl image: National Geographic Online

From the All About Birds site:

Renowned for ferocity, Great Horned Owls kill and eat small to medium mammals of many kinds, especially hares and rabbits. They eat mice, rats, squirrels, opossums, woodchucks, bats, weasels, and the occasional domestic cat. Great-Horned Owls also eat skunks, which are sometimes such a prominent part of the diet that both bird and nest may smell of musk. Although mammalian prey typically comprise more than three quarters of the diet, more than fifty species of birds have been recorded as prey. In addition to hunting small songbirds, Great Horned Owls have been known to eat large birds such as grouse, herons, ducks, Canada Geese, hawks (including Red-tailed), and even other species of owl. A woodland with resident Great Horned Owls usually lacks any other raptors in the immediate vicinity.

Well, that may explain what has happened to some of the feral cats that have been roaming around here lately.  If I were an owl, I would prefer a larger return for the amount of effort required to hunt - a meal such as a cat or rabbit rather than a scrawny little songbird.  What is it about my purple martins that makes him want to come after them so aggressively anyway?  Do they taste like lobster or some other special delicacy?
My first moves in response to the owl were to put up the wire fencing around my Trendsetter and the array of garden stakes around my gourd racks.  We had multiple days where the owl did not make an appearance, then when he did show up, the game camera pictures showed him using the tops of the racks as perches from which he was hunting for ground-dwelling prey.

Then one night, he upped the ante - I found a bent garden stake in front of 2 gourds, which I replaced with an even thicker stake. As the stake he grabbed was just out of view of the game camera, I was unable to see what had happened, but I did verify that the martins in those 2 gourds were safe & still feeding their young.  In response to his move, I decided to stand watch and wait for him and hopefully give him a good scare.  He flew through my yard at 9:10 PM on 7/4, circled to some trees and at 9:25 PM, he returned to perch on the perching post, 20' from my martin housing.  I flipped on all the lights, including my million-watt spotlight and ran at him, screaming a lot of words that probably shouldn't be printed here on my blog.  Regardless, he left in a hurry.  Despite my feeling of victory in the battle that night, I knew that the war was not yet over, but I still hoped I had provided him with something to think about before he landed here again.
As most of you know, he upped the ante again on the nights of 7/7 and 7/9, challenging the integrity of my wire cage on the Trendsetter and flushing out several martins.
http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/07/caught-in-act.html

While these videos have indeed been alarming to me, I saw his increased aggression as another challenge to which I needed to rise and hopefully, respond with something even better which will perplex and discourage him.  As of yesterday, we had 3 peaceful nights with no owl attacks, but knowing that he is probably not done with me or my martins yet., I built a scarecrow and christened her, "Ellie Mae" before sticking her out in the yard to stand guard duty last night.

As I sat with Ellie Mae in the yard last night, I saw a large bird with a large pair of wings silhouetted against the southern horizon moving steadily northward toward my colony.  "Holy Moley - he's bigger than I thought - not tonight - you will NOT eat martins tonight!", I thought.  Grabbing my spotlight as I rose and tensing in preparation to start my own running, screaming, scary attack, I stopped mid-step as my eyes identified my attacker - and I allowed the Great Blue Heron to pass, unmolested by my colorful words and lights.  I did find it odd though that after flying another 5 seconds north of my house, the heron suddenly turned 180 degrees, emitted her own alarm calls, and flew back southward.  What had scared her?  Had she spotted my owl perched in a tree north of the house and changed course?  I'll never know.
All the game cameras confirmed today that we have now been 4 nights without any night visitors.
Whether Ellie Mae is helping or not is yet to be determined.  I'll move her around the yard to different spots, keep playing the radio and keep the lights on all night.  If anything does happen, I'm sure I'll be dismayed, saddened, alarmed and very, very upset again.  But I will regroup and deal with it.
For now though; "Dear Mr. Owl - Your Move". 

Caught in the Act

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

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

This one happened 2 nights later.

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

Purple Martin Post Fledging Behavior

When I asked this question last week on the Purple Martin Conservation Assoc. (PMCA) page,

One of the most-often-repeated discussions that Mr. Freeze and I have every year about this time when the fledges are spreading their wings and taking flight is, "why do the adults (sometimes their own parents) often push them down when they start to fly?" There always seems to be one or two that are 'bumping' the new fledge or seemingly trying to ground him.
We speculate a lot that they're trying to get the new fledge to practice his evasive maneuvers right out of the gate or just trying to keep him from going too high, especially since hawks are in the area.
Are there any more-educated guesses on this practice by the adults? Is it just a matter of, "only the strong that survive the initial flights, will survive migration, so they're being tested"?

This was the answer provided by Louise Chambers, PMCA:

Here is an older publication about post-fledging behavior; comments about harassment in the later pages (384-385): http://sora.unm.edu/.../wilson/v090n03/p0376-p0385.pdf.

I thoroughly enjoyed the article and thought my readers might enjoy it as well.

An Ozarks Mason Bee Project - Part 1

I’ve been reading a lot about the plight of the honey bees for years now and wondering what I could do to help them.  Some people, like our local friend Andy, have setup honeybee hives on their property.  I had thought about doing that, but after listening to Andy’s experiences, now I’m glad I didn’t.  I hate getting stung by any flying or crawling insects and apparently, even with protective suits, sometimes you still get stung.  The costs of getting started with honey bees really weren’t very appealing to me either.
My desire to help the honey bees became even stronger this past year after watching several documentaries about the problems they’re encountering.  This “TED” talk by Marla Spivak was very interesting, well done and enlightening. The solutions she talks about are so obvious and simple, it makes you wonder why more people haven’t already put them into practice.

http://www.ted.com/talks/marla_spivak_why_bees_are_disappearing.html

Nevertheless, the honey bees are not the only bees that are in trouble.  My problem for the last 2 years has been dealing with the question of, “where do I start and how could I really make an impact”?  Turns out, the impact I can make starts in my own backyard.  I learned last year that there are actually more benefits and less costs involved when raising Orchard Mason Bees.  One of the benefits delighted me; Mason bees are actually more docile than honey bees and are less likely to sting!  Woohoo – I can dig that!
Orchard Mason Bees are also supposed to be better pollinators than honey bees.  They will work in cooler and damper weather as well.  Why are they better pollinators? They carry pollen on the underside of their abdomen and then scrape the pollen off within their nesting hole. Because the pollen is carried dry on their hair, it is more easily transferred, resulting in significantly more pollinated flowers than their cousin, the honey bee, who wet the pollen they carry on their legs.

http://www.crownbees.com/what-makes-mason-bees-such-good-pollinators/

http://www.citygirlfarming.com/Bees/MasonBeeInfo.html

http://www.citygirlfarming.com/Bees/BeeKeeping.html

Step 1 is to plant food to attract the bees - native wildflowers. The native wildflower project has been ongoing since 2007 and am loving the results.  But I had to smile to myself as I had uncovered yet another hobby where I would have the challenge of providing food for something I was inviting to my backyard. 
Step 2 is to provide shelter and housing. 
In researching mason bees I found that there are many simple ways to attract and provide housing for them.  If you search the internet, you will find tons of cool pictures of logs and various other natural things that can be drilled out and placed together to make visually attractive housing for them.

However attractive they are though, to my disappointment, I learned these structures are not very practical or safe for the bees as they allow various parasites to also take up residence and kill the hibernating bees.  And the housing is not very easy to clean.
I realize these natural cavities are where 99% of the mason bees lay their eggs and somehow, some percentage of them survive.  At some point, I will probably grab a bunch of hardwood, reeds and other materials and build one of these beautiful structures and just burn the materials and start over with fresh-drilled wood, reeds, etc. every year.
While I'm talking about making your own housing, here is a fun project you can do with your kids to build your own bee housing.
http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Build-a-Bee-House.aspx

But for now, I wanted to be able to see this evolution of life and I elected to try artificial housing.
I finally found a really good source for housing and ordered 4 of these blocks.
http://www.masonbeehomes.com/pro-bee-block
Mason bees usually work within a 300 foot radius of their home, so I placed these 4 blocks in strategic places around my property.

4 houses - sides & top are cut from cedar boards and the roof overhangs almost 2".

This one was hung in front of the orchard on 4/28/2014 where cherry trees, elderberries and blackberries grow.

This one is located under a tree limb, facing south as required by the instructions, overlooking a large grove of black hawthorn (viburnum).

This one was hung in front of our Viburnum forest on 4/28/2014 that blooms om early spring.

I was afraid that I had put out my Mason bee homes way too late for our region, but I was hopeful that I might pick up some stragglers.  After all, the plum trees (our first early spring bloomer in this region) and the viburnum were still blooming!  Maybe I would get lucky my first year, but I'd have to wait and see.

Sharing the Passion

Old Paul and his wife Sharon live here in Missouri and they are hopelessly in love with purple martins.  They are part of my group of proteges that I mentor here in Missouri.  Of course, according to Paul's latest update, he doesn't need mentoring anymore.  He is now doing some mentoring of his own.

I was delighted to receive Paul's pictures a couple of days ago, but I was even more delighted to see that he is sharing his love and passion for these birds with these beautiful girls.

Paul wrote:
"Took our neighbor girls, Allie and Libby,  to the cabin to see the baby Purple Martins. They were elated to get to hold a baby. It was a nice experience for them.

I am very pleased with our population this year. We have 16 nesting pairs, an increase from last year's six nesting pairs. We will do one more nest check this weekend to get a final count of babies. Please note the open glide area and pond. They love to drop down to get their drinks. Come fledging time it's going to get pretty busy and noisy at our colony. The photo only shows one gourd rack, just to the west is another pole with two metal houses with 2-room condos and four gourds below those houses.

If you get these photo OK, you are welcome to use them in your "Birds & Bees".

I have enjoyed our PMs more this year than ever before.

Old Paul and Sharon"

Check out the smiles!

Future purple martin landlords!

Teach them the importance and benefit of a winch system!  :)

Beautiful site, beautiful girls and a wise Old Paul.

It's hard to tell who is happier in this picture!

Thanks Paul & Sharon for the wonderful pictures and sharing your colony with 2 lovely girls!