Success is in the Eyes of the Beholder

When checking the smaller items that were made with the concrete over the last couple of days, we decided that today was a good day to liberate the bird bath from its walls and let it be free.  At first, I was disappointed at the ugly structure that emerged from the clay mold, but after studying it for awhile I started to really like it.  Is this the way a mother feels about an ugly baby?  I wouldn't know - I didn't have an ugly baby.

But this, this is different.  I hold no emotional attachment to it, only monetary investment.  Or do I?  As I studied it, I realized that I was starting to fall in love with it.  It needs some work on the spout, but otherwise, it is quite functional.  While it may be quite ugly around the edges, a slow realization started to glow in my brain.  This is so me.  This is the way it turns out for me sometimes.  Ugly, but quite functional.  I'm not about prettiness in my yard.  I've always been about function and this happens to be quite functional as it holds water and will provide my birds with a place to bathe.  It's unique.  It's mine. It works for the birds and it works for me.  Well, it will work for me after some grinding on the overflow spout.  I'm willing to bet my life savings that there's not another one like it in the world either.  It's so, MINE!  It's so "Kathy" so yes, I'm kind of proud of it.

Making it the Way you want it

With only 2 pairs of purple martins here, still feeding their young, I have started looking at the other things on my list.  One of my major annoyances has been the constant, twice a day refilling of my el-cheapo, concrete, shallow bird bath since the weather has been so hot & dry.  It just doesn't hold a lot of water and I finally just gave up and let it go dry.  But the birds have still been stopping by and peering forlornly at the empty bath, making me feel guilty
I have seen many DIY projects for building a homemade bird bath, but none of them were exactly what I wanted or envisioned and I was quite sure that what I wanted was not available for purchase.  Not at a price I would pay, anyway.  I wanted something that I wouldn't have to refill two or three times a day.  Something with a 6 to 10 gallon water reservoir.  Just over a week ago, we finally setup a prototype of what I thought I might want and waited to see if the birds would like the waterfalls. 

3, 18" planter water trays, small aquarium pump, aquarium hose and a 6-gallon reservoir and my prototype was up & running.

Turns out, they love it!  But I still wasn't happy with the plastic trays - they were too deep and smooth and I had to add rocks to them to make them more shallow.  That would negate their formerly "easy-to-clean" attractiveness.  And I just didn't love them.  I could live with them, but that's different than loving them.  My darling husband knew that I wasn't happy with them and came up with the idea of molding and making our own bird baths with pour spouts at a depth of our choosing.  He always has great ideas.  I do too, but often his implementation is better than mine.  That's because he's more patient than I am and I was excited. 
I love making my own stuff and I love being crafty, so with a vacation day on Friday, we put his plan into action.  In Missouri, clay is our typical "top soil".  So we decided to take advantage of the ability to use it to make a mold for our bird bath trays.

One bucket of clay, coming up!

The form for holding our mold.

The clay was sifted to remove all the rocks & big chunks.

Add water to make a super, gooey, sticky mix.

It has to be so sticky that it can pull your gloves off.

And makes you giggle.

I centered the pan, upside down and shaped the mold.

Final shape, with an overflow spout, to keep the water level where I want it.  I had to shape the spout twice.  Must remember to think upside-down!

My supervisor is so serious.  There will be no goofing off on this project, missy!  He told me not to post this picture, unless I was prepared to fight off all the women that will now flock to our home to find this handsome hunk.  Bring it, ladies!

My first test-run with a leaf casting, using clay as a practice substitute for concrete.

The pour is done.  The Terra Cotta color of the concrete doesn't exactly match the color you see in the bucket on the left.  But I can live with it.  We added this fortifier, so no wet cure is needed and neither is sealant: http://www.quikrete.com/productlines/ConcreteAcrylicFortifier.asp

 I will call this bird bath my "Cucumber Cool" bath, since I used all cucumber leaves under the concrete.  For my stepping stones below, I used a couple of grapevine leaves (as in the clay picture above) and some leaves from a Sycamore tree in the bigger trays.

My stepping stones and a 'brick' were poured out of the remaining concrete.

Now we wait.

An Ozarks Mason Bee Project - Part 2

It seems not to matter how many books you read or how much research you do when it comes to nature; nature will always do what it wants to do and there's nothing you can do about it.  Earlier this year, I had launched my first Mason Bee project.  I wrote all about it here:

http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-ozarks-mason-bee-project-part-1.html

When I put that housing out on 4/28/2014, I was very worried that I had missed the window to attract mason bees to my housing.  Turns out, my instincts were right.  Again.  Not only was I right about my poor timing, I was wrong about where I placed the housing also.  I had gotten the direction right, but after discovering tent worm caterpillars in my housing, I yanked them down from their mounts and did some more reading, eventually finding some text that said, "do not hang in trees".  I found out why.
I brought in all my housing, disassembled it, cleaned it all with a 10% bleach solution and left it in the sun to dry for a week.  I was very disappointed and frustrated at myself.
One week later, while sitting on our 4-wheelers in the shop, I noticed a small, flying, wasp-like creature flying around the small holes in the handlebar ends on both our bikes.

 And she seemed to be carrying something.

Bob's handlebar grip, already stuffed and closed off with a small amount of clay.

Bob researched it that night on the internet and found out that our alien-looking insect was a Potter's wasp.  Of course, we were conflicted in our ID, because she wasn't building anything that looked like the typical Potter's wasp nests that you see on the internet, but it never seems to happen that way here anyway.  But one id factor in particular helped - she was carrying a small caterpillar into her nest.  From the ID link above:

When a cell is completed, the adult wasp typically collects beetle larvae, spiders, or caterpillars and, paralyzing them, places them in the cell to serve as food for a single wasp larva. As a normal rule, the adult wasp lays a single egg in the empty cell before provisioning it. Some species lay the egg in the opening of the cell, suspended from a thread of dried fluid. When the wasp larva hatches, it drops and starts to feed upon the supplied prey for a few weeks before pupating.

Sounds kind of brutal, but fascinating at the same time.  Realizing that I had 4 empty Mason bee homes and this poor wasp could not be allowed to continue building in our handlebars, I mounted my Mason bee homes just outside the shop and gently coaxed the wasp outside so she could find her new homes.  I figured if the Mason bees weren't going to use my homes this year, something might was well take advantage of them.
It didn't take her long to find them.  She must have attracted others because I frequently see at least 2 of them building in their nests.  They have been very tolerant of me taking pictures and so far, I have not been stung.  I have really enjoyed watching their progress, even if they're not Mason bees.  Next year, I plan on getting my housing out earlier and will work on a better location also.  For now though, I'm perfectly happy to watch these busy, busy wasps building their nests.  Things didn't work out exactly as I planned because Mother Nature decided to do something different and I'm perfectly happy to take an alternative path with Her.

Photo taken 6/21/2014 - 2 weeks after placing the housing.

7/2/2014 - can you find her? Tip: she's in the upper house.

7/4/2014 - Closeup of the top home - notice the dried clay that has fallen off the entrance holes.  While she is completely capable of finding her own clay or making the seal on her own, I do spray water on the ground to keep some clay wet for her close by.

My lovely darling - 7/17/2014

8/1/2014 - can you spot the food that is trying to escape?

Yes, the escaping food is the glow-worm at the top there.  I imagine she'll return to catch him before he gets too far.

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!

Handy, Dandy Nest Check Tool Box

I've been conducting nest checks since early May.  But now, with babies hatching, it's time to get serious!  So that my nest checks can go quickly, I prefer to be prepared with everything that I might need.  Especially when there are lots of babies and parents are trying to feed their young, I try to move quickly and that means having everything right there when I need it.
In 2011, I put together a Nest-Check Tool Kit.  It's easy to carry and I don't have to run back & forth for things I may have forgotten. It pays to get organized with 84 nest cavities to check!
I have a Harley Davidson tool belt (stolen from Mr. Freeze- ssshhhhh!) where I put the following for easy access:
- voice recorder (has a strap that gets pinned to my shirt for easy access and clear voice recording, especially when it's windy).  I bought this handy little recorder at Walmart for about $25 and it has a great microphone in it and easy buttons that allow me to record each nest check, then replay it back at a more convenient time to record into my nest check logbook. 
- marker - for refreshing numbers on the gourd lids
- small phillips screw driver - to tighten or move the decoys
- electrical tape - securing decoys after moving
- wire cutters - cutting the zip ties that secure the rods on which the decoys are mounted
- telescoping automotive mirror - helps to see the eggs in the back of the Trendsetter house nests
- zip ties - securing the dowel rods the decoys are mounted on.
- baggie with cards safety-pinned to the tool belt - I record the gourd / house numbers that contain the oldest nestlings before I go out. I can grab the baggie & quickly see which nests I need to plug without fouling the card.

Tool Box:
Serves as a step stool with the lid closed, for checking the higher nests, tool box and a chair.  It contains:
- nest plugs (see upper right of picture) which are basically old socks & pieces of sweat pants with long string wrapped around them (there are more under the tray)
- large flathead screwdriver (don't know what it's for, but I have it if I need it!) LOL
- forceps - yeah, I don't know why I have those in there either
- large ziploc bag with 10 or so folded paper towels soaked in 90% rubbing alcohol in case I encounter large populations of mites! 
- plastic gloves to be used in case of really yucky, nasty stuff in the nest that needs to be removed.  I avoid latex as I'm allergic to it, and figure it can't be good for the birds that I handle either.

When it comes time to start doing nest replacements, I also fill my wheelbarrow with fresh pine needles and take 2 empty 5-gallon buckets with me.  In one I dump the nasty, old nests, and in the other I have fresh pine needles where I temporarily move the babies while doing a nest replacement.

The Night Belongs to Thee

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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