The colony activity here in West Palm Beach has certainly kicked up a notch. The male purple martins are even heard singing while still in there gourds. I opened up the other gourd rack and filled them with pine straw. Artificial gourds should be filled with a few handfuls of pine straw to prevent them being unable to exit the slick plastic gourds. Even with the black traction strip in my Troyer Horizontal Gourds, they can be difficult, if not impossible to exit. So make sure you place some nesting material in those gourds. I know “some” ultra conservative birders may scoff at giving purple martins this help. They see it as unnecessary interference. But that thinking is flawed. It has nothing to do with altering nature but more to do with preventing a birds death by our hand.

The Purple Martin colonycam is up and averaging about 90% up-time.

While outside getting something out of my car I happened to look up and Lo and Behold, a ASY female purple martin was flying over head. In their distinctive ‘flap flap glide’ she circled lazily over head, casually feeding. I rushed inside panic striken since all my housing was closed and started cutting the white plastic bags that I had placed over each gourd. Placing large handfuls of pine straw that my husband collected from a wooded lot down the street, I then was able to hoist one of my gourd racks and my MPP (multi purpose pole) system up. The purple martin then flew around diving and chirping a few times before flying up to feed again.

She is home.

It is official! The first purple martins for the 2011 season have arrived. As usual, the West coast of Florida lays claim to the first purple martin “scout”.

On Jan 5, 2011, Dr. Steven K. Million of Lake Suzy (Lake Suzy is west of Arcadia and east of Port Charlotte and Northeast of Punta Gorda), Florida reported the first martin. Fort Myers (first to report purple martins last year) followed suit on 06 January at a colony affectionately named the Purple Martin Hotel At Gateway.

Of course, we ALL know that there are NO purple martin scouts. Even the PMCA agrees. What some folks call scouts are just older more experienced birds returning to their old colony sites to secure a nest spot. They simply stop at other sites along the way. Now in my opinion, (considering how gregarious purple martins are) when they arrive in such small numbers they are seeking out other martins to socialize with so maybe they are simply seeking out their own.

For our colony, I suspect the martins won’t arrive for a few more weeks. If you are like me then you still need to buy those replacement purple martin house doors, a few extra gourds, heck maybe a new purple martin system. So now is the time. We recommend making all repairs and most minor changes BEFORE your purple martins arrive.

Well, Christmas is over, Hanukkah is done. The holidays are past and now the planning has begun. Now is the time to plan ahead and nip any impending problems in the bud.

For example, those pulley ropes don’t last forever. Order them now and change them so that you don’t end up with a catastrophic scenario after your season has begun. You can usually replace the rope quite easily but what rope you choose to replace what is currently on your purple martin system is CRUCIAL.
Under NO circumstances should you use polypropylene rope, it is yellow in color and often used in marine applications. It is sometimes referred to as nylon rope or boat rope. Do not use it as it will degrade in the sunlight with UV rays and break. Natural fiber ropes are also a poor choice as all natural fibers will decompose by their nature.  Make sure you purchase real polyester rope or nylon rope. They even make ropes that are a combination of the two. They resist UV rays and are the best choices for outdoor use. We recommend bringing them out of the weather to get them to last longer- up to 10-12 years. Leaving them outside year round cuts their life expectancy to 5-8 years. Polyester rope is the best choice and easy to find.

Real nylon rope is harder to find. Look for solid, braided 100% nylon. It is white in color and is more elastic than polyester, so may require tightening due to stretching.

With any rope, look for wear and fraying.  Small tufts are normal. These tufts look like small feathers or hair sticking out of the rope.  If your rope becomes stiff and hard or begins to unbraid, then you should replace the rope. Whether you replace only the rope or the pulleys also, is up to you. Just make sure you oil with 3-1 oil, not WD-40. I was not aware that WD-40 is not really an oil but a water dispersant and will not adequately protect your pulley’s. (Thanks Diane!)

With my backyard being a veritable desert of bird life lately, I was surprised to see hundreds if not thousand of tree swallows streaking westward at about 2:30 this afternoon. With their stark white bellies flashing they darted about all going towards the same common destination. I am not sure where but they were not pausing to eat. The shot straight and true.
With the holidays almost here I know that soon our purple martins will be starting their journey home. Shortly after New years, they always seem to show up on Florida’s west coast then within a few weeks they come home to me. It is really not that far away. Fall has been pretty boring with even my migratory visitors not staying for long. My Eastern Phoebe was only around a day or two. A pair of Sandhill Cranes frequently tempt fate by walking way too close to the road. Hopefully winter will treat the martins kindly.
For now the tree swallows will just have to do.

An article that appeared a few weeks ago in the New York Times home section captured the eye of the Martha Stewart production team who brought it to the attention of Martha Stewart herself. A fellow martin landlord, Larry Melcher was able to be on her show and did a great job as an ambassador for Purple Martins. At Martha Stewart’s website, you will find athe actual video that aired on her show and also an easy to follow “how to” guide for making natural purple martin gourds.

Just remember. If you want to attract purple martins, one gourd will not be enough. Be prepared to make at least 4 and use a face mask as the fine dust created by cutting gourds is very irritating to the lungs. Also remember that you cannot successfully attract martins by hanging one of these from a tree. It must be hung in an open area at least 10 feet or more, off the ground. If you don’t have a pole to hang the gourds from a pole like this one is perfect for hanging a few gourds. Easy to raise and lower and a top perch to boot.

Check out Martha Stewart’s website and enjoy!

If you don’t want to call it “storing” I won’t blame you. The gourds didn’t get taken down and hopefully my little experiment in laziness will pay off.

What have I actually done? Well, the gourds were emptied, cleaned out with water and sprayed down with a dilute bleach solution. Then after a good air dry I simply bagged them up in kitchen garbage bags. I will see how the plastic holds up after a few months of the hot South Florida sun beating down on them. Hopefully the purple martin gourds will be none the worse for wear.

Now this is an experiment so I will see how it goes and barring any hurricanes (kinda late, so I doubt it) the martin housing should be fine to wait it out. Now I do plan on replacing one of my pulley ropes on my older gourd rack. I have noticed some stiffness and minor frizz but no real fraying yet, but better to change them before my martins arrive in January than to have a problem arise in mid season.

When my birds do arrive I should be able to simply remove the bags and fill the nests with pine needles and be good to go…or so I think. But we all know how plans can work out.

Any other procrastinators out there?

I recently found a really fun, interactive way for children to learn about migration. PBS kids has made an online game featuring Dr. Seuss and a flock of, you guessed it, PURPLE MARTINS! How cool is that?!? In Migration Adventure, kids learn all about how and why birds migrate. It’s a teaching tool masked in an online video game that is as safe as it comes. And we all know kids learn best when they don’t even realize they are being taught! Check it out and have your little one play. Also (on the theme of kids and learning) our website has a couple of great kids books. A purple martin book made specifically for children and a darling beginner reader book about a swallow that also teaches cooperation, friendship and about migration.

My Best Nest, a hardcover children’s picture book, is filled with vibrant and active illustrations that allow the reader to follow a mother Purple Martin swallow during her first day of nest building. A short natural history section with color photos is included for parents, grandparents and teachers. A bonus plus is this book is autographed by the author/illustrator Ree Dellinger. Truly a work of art, each page is beautiful and proceeds of this book go to benefit migratory birds and wildlife conservation efforts.

Follow the Swallow is a cool for early readers between 5 and 7 years old. Vivid illustrations and large text and also balloon inserts that kids find irresistible and exciting. Written by award winning author, Julia Donaldson, who has written books such as Spinderella, The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom.

The final tally is in and our numbers were up. We offered more compartments and had 3 late nests that ran our season into late July. We also offered 3 low hanging gourds on shepherds hooks that were less5 feet off the ground and all filled with both SY and ASYpairs.

Thankfully no purple martins needed to go to the rehabber but unfortunately the resident red shouldered hawk caught several fledglings.

Total Eggs Laid: 202

Total Eggs Hatched: 170

Total Young Fledged: 158

Plans for next year include the repair of the nest cam, another aluminum house to put up on our multi-purpose purple martin pole and whatever else I can dream up for next year.

Going to your local premigratory roosts are a great way to herald the end of summer. The spectacular swarms of purple martins, descending in on trees, weighing down their branches like a heavy burden as countless more rain down to jockey for a spot  for the night. It is an awe inspiring sight not easily forgotten.

What happens to all those birds in the morning though? Not many people hang around or get up early enough to watch the birds ascend to the sky come sunrise.  The National Weather Service and their Doppler Radars have documented this phenomenon for years since bird movements were discovered on radar back in the 1940′s. On the radar image here, you can see the red arrows pointing to these radar rings (also called doughnuts) formed by the mass of birds flying out and away from the roosting sites. According to the Purple Martin Conservation Association and their Project Martin Roost, more than 300 possible roosts occur in Eastern North America. The largest known roost, at Lake Murray in South Carolina has over 700,000 birds.

Kevin R. Russell and Sidney A. Gauthreaux, jr. did a wonderful study titled, Use of Weather Radar to Characterize Movements of Roosting Purple Martins, (back in 1998) that is an interesting read. You can also read what the National Weather Service has to say about it with their article titled Roosting Birds Detected on NWS Doppler Radar.

If you know of a roost consider visiting one before the martins are gone. You won’t regret it. If you can’t get to one you can always watch our video we took in 2009 of a local roost in Davie Florida here.