The last nest of 2 martin fledglings (which were a complete surprise) fledged the same day that Bonnie was supposed to dump rain all along the coast. Fortunately for some, the rain was more of a short drizzle but amazingly the purple martins seemed to know something was up.

Every morning our colony would get a faithful dozen or so visitors that would sit on the housing and chatter away. By about 11 AM they would leave only to return again the next morning. But the day after Bonnie not a purple feather was to be seen. Many speculate that birds, being so sensitive to changes in barometric pressures and the weather , could avoid bad weather by delaying migration to an area of poor weather or vice versa. Could it be coincidence?

According to Melvin L. Kreithen and William T. Keeton of the Division of Biological Sciences, Langmuir Laboratory, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York,(23 October 1973) Homing pigeons were able to to detect air pressure changes. As purple martin landlords can tell you, a purple martins homing ability is at the very least equal to that of a homing pigeon. So the correlation is fair.

By any account, the season is over here in South Florida and all martins have left.

The factors that affect a birds migration are complex and not completely understood. Click this article for Neotropical Migratory Bird Basics from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. If you want to learn more about Neotropical Migratory Birds read this article on Birds Built-in Barometer.

Not that my birds needed a Tropical Storm to end their party, migratory birds know when it is time to go based on known factors such as the length of day and for some types of birds, even star patterns. There is nothing to be done for purple martins (or any other migratory bird-for that matter) that linger on. Some folks will tell you to lower or remove housing, but don’t bother. Just like the old wives tales that persist that tell hummingbird aficionados to remove hummingbird feeders to push hummers to migrate, nothing needs to be done.

So keep the feeders full, leave the housing up till you feel like it. Birds have been migrating for a long time and the only thing we need to do for them is support them, by way of a beak full of nectar, a belly full of seed or perhaps a dry place to sleep at night.

The article mentions specifically that the martins were, “stalled in April due to low pressure systems in the south. That delay seems to have upset normal migration patterns in which birds like purple martins send scout males first, followed later by females.”

I thought that I just had to clarify this statement that seems to speak to the age old (and false) myth that purple martins will send out “scouts” ahead of the rest of the colony. Purple martins experience a staggered molt in South America and  older birds will complete molting before younger birds do. The phenomenon known as “scouts” is actually just older more experienced birds rushing “home” to secure nesting prime nesting spots. Now that we have that straightened out…

As far as why YOUR purple martins never arrived; there is only really one reason.

The colony experienced losses of adult birds, nestlings and fledglings due to predation, weather extremes (cold or drought) greater than the rate of reproduction.

Here is how that can happen:

1. Prolonged Cold Spring Snaps

2.Extended Dry Weather / Drought

3. Predation

Let me go into detail on these:

In cold weather (temps of 40 degrees F or below) aerial insects are not available and starvation will occur within days. Record Low temps for record breaking extended periods of time, made foraging for food impossible for many purple martins. So birds that may have arrived early, didn’t survive this year. Purple Martin landlords often report of “early arrivers” braving intense spring cold snaps for days and even with poor weather forecast, martins will often times continue their journey Northward and remain at their colony site. Many landlords last year and this year reported huge losses of ASY (adult) purple martins from cold snaps such as these.

Droughts were widespread and severe in many areas in 2008 even more so in 2009. Reduced rain results in reduced amounts of aerial insects thus reducing available food supply. Large losses were reported last year of thousands of dead nestlings that starved to death. According to Louise Chambers of the Purple Martin Conservation Association, “.We don’t know if adults will return after total nesting failure” so even though “many landlords are reporting a very good season this year” it could be that those adults returned or their sites attracted new adults.

The most important factor and the one WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT, is predation. Most predation goes undiscovered. Without safety precautions, such as predator guards in place, raccoons and snakes can easily climb ANY martin pole and go from martin nest to martin house for an easy meal. A colony can be decimated within days. Once a gang of raccoons finds the tasty treats (your birds) at the top of your purple martin pole, it will climb every pole in the neighborhood. And believe me, I have seen it Raccoons DO eat birds! Last year at our local roost, I witnessed raccoons dining at their leisure on so many purple martins that their body parts littered the ground like confetti. You can read the post here: Davie Fla Roost.

One of the reasons why the Purple Martin Conservation Association recommends nest checks is to discover problems early. By discovering problems such as nest predation, you can monitor the health and growth of your colony. Many landlords that report complete colony abandonment have in fact been suffering chronic losses and/or predation. The ultimate failure of many colonies could have been avoided by careful observation and having predator protection installed.

So to conclude, if you don’t observe your martins and perform nest checks, your colony may have suffered losses of adults from cold weather, losses of nestlings due to dry weather and, if unprotected, losses from ground predators as well. Then that is why you had no martins return at all.

If you are interested in reading more about raccoons and the threat they pose, try this article titled, “Raccoons in our Midst”.

If you want to know what other threats there are to your colony check out this surprisingly long list, “Threats.”

©2010 PurpleMartinArt.com / S.Halpin

The Red Shouldered hawks nest close by and protect this as their territory from other hawks. If that can be counted as protection…I am not too sure.

Night time is quiet and I am not sure if many martins are returning to the nests to roost at night. They may have moved on to a local assembly area or pre-migratory roost. The fact that I am talking about the roosts already almost sounds crazy! Can time have flown by so fast? I guess I will start planning another trip to the roost in Davie this year.  It has almost been exactly a year since I went to see it and video taped it. You can see it at my blog post titled Purple Martin Pre-Migratory Roost Spectacular. It is a great YouTube clip taken at the roost with swarms of purple martins.

The webcam will not be up again for the remainder of this year as the computer I had it running on is dead. I plan on replacing it as soon as I can and it will be up again next January. I promise.

©2010 PurpleMartinArt.com / S.Halpin

I appreciate all the well wishes I have received and it is probably for the best as I knew that the  bird was beyond any hope of freedom ever again. It is good to know, however that the 2 babies are doing fine. Ellen, from Wildlife Resource Center of the Palm Beaches, has been returning my calls ever faithfully and tells me that the 2 are doing great, eating up a storm and are on track to be released in several week

Usually I enjoy her writing immensely, but while reading this one I found myself at first feeling defensive of my hobby but then quite protective of my “pets”.

I responded to her blog post,

“The only part I don’t agree with is about how European settlers began this birds dependence on humans. It has been documented that Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians would hang up dried gourds for these birds and according to the Purple Martin Conservation Association, the purple martin has undergone in the last several hundred years, a tradition shift where they no longer recognize natural tree snags as nest sites. Are they pets? I understand you argument there, but as a purple martin landlord I take pride in keeping this bird safely off the endangered species list, which according to the PMCA, would probably be the case had humans not taken to putting up housing.”

Us landlords are familiar with the story of the history of Purple Martins. For those that don’t know the history of purple martins a great article is at the PMCA website.

Though Sharon sees our meddling in the affairs of purple martins as interfering with natural selection, I see it as a continuing of a symbiotic relationship with these birds that gave up their natural ways to help us. Though we don’t need them to warn us of vultures or birds of prey that are trying to eat Buffalo meat hung up to dry, or to chase crows from crop fields or even as natural flying insect control anymore; I find it comforting to know that I am fulfilling the promise made by those Native Americans so many years ago. That though we, as the human race, may have outlived the usefulness of Purple Martins in a practical sense, that we will stand by what we began.

Maybe Ms. Stiteler will reconsider her stance?

On Saturday April the 17th, I checked 35 compartments out of 37 and have a grand total of…(drum roll) 153 eggs! Most nests had 6 eggs with some having 5 or less and  a couple having 7 eggs. I worked fast as many are already incubating so I have NO idea when some of these will be hatching. I know, that is bad.

It is always a good idea to check on nests around hatch time to check for capped eggs. A capped egg is when the partial shell from a hatched chick falls over top of an unhatched egg and traps the chick inside. Entombed within 2 shells the baby is unable to peck its way out and dies. By doing nest checks around hatch time, empty shell pieces can be removed and capped eggs discovered in time to save the little life inside.

I have been kept quite busy with my finches (indoor in cages…NOT wild). Tomorrow I hope to get the first nest check in as I have seen many birds bringing leaves and tree bark into their nests over the last few weeks. I put plenty of pine needles in the nests which makes me wonder why I have not seen the usual stealing of nest material as in years past. Nor have I seen them bringing in more pine needles…just leaves.

In any case tomorrow I will do a nest check and find out. I am laying bets that I will find several nests with eggs.

I am hanging a few old gourds on shepherds hooks and though these gourds are barely 4 1/2 feet off the ground, I am sure they will be taken. Every year I get a pair to take up residence in the shepherds hook gourd so this year I added 2 more. Hay, why not? If they are desperate enough to nest in some of the houses I see them in,. why not a shepherds hook. Of course I use a predator protector to keep raccoons and other creepy crawlies from getting an easy meal. This picture was last years ASY takers and they fledged 4 (if I remember) from this gourd. Every morning there is a few ASY males giving tours to interested ladies but at this point many are still playing musical gourds so I can’t tell if they are serious. But I will let you know.

Speaking of serious, the first egg of the 2010 season has been reported. On March 27 in the Orlando area. (Congrats James M!) Mine usually follow by several weeks.

In Apple Creek Ohio at the Yoder colony, the season started normal enough. Their 50 pairs of martins were devastated however, by a 4th of July cold spell that killed 50 purple martin nestlings. An ASY female showed up at their site in mid August. The Yoders did not believe the female was from their site due to the fact that she had a recently fledged youngster that she was still caring for and no recently fledged young from their site. They witnessed the female bringing in nesting material into a compartment in the middle of September.

On November 1st, 2009 was the last sighting of the females offspring. Whether he followed the instinct to fly South, succumbed to the weather or was killed by a hawk, we do not know. Only that after that date the ASY female was alone.

The Yoder’s conditioned her to accept supplemental feedings by tossing meal worms into the air. They fed her approximately 50 meal  worms each day. Feeding her 5 times a day- about 10 meal worms at a feeding.

She survived 7 inches of snow on Jan 3, 2010 and 0°F  (ZERO DEGREES !) temperatures. And like this she was accepting feedings and was chirping up until January 10, 2010. At the last sighting on that date she was seen sitting on the front porch of the compartment she was using. The compartments were checked and no remains were found. Did she finally migrate? Did she fall victim to a hawk attack? We will never know.

The final news on this amazing story are both sad and not. That she survived that long is an amazing testament to the lengths that purple martin landlords will go to to protect “their” birds. A curiosity that makes one wonder how new behavioral patterns are evolved in a bird that has shown one huge evolutionary transitional shift already. But on the other hand, if in fact she did perish, how would the perpetuation of this behavior ultimately serve purple martins as a whole?

Check out PurpleMartins-R-Us.com for more information on Purple Martins including supplemental feeding of Adult Purple Martins. There you will even find a video of martins being fed.