On a June evening, I watched as my martins began settling in for the evening. Suddenly a commotion began and as many purple Martin landlords can relate, I knew a predator was about. It was then that the great horned owl soared just over me and perched in this spruce tree. With a red-lining battery on my I-phone I was able to get a decent video in the growing darkness all the while expecting the phone battery to die. On a normal night this owl appears 20 to thirty minutes later than it did on this night when there is total darkness.

I cringe the arrival of this owl on the evenings that I am watching for it. It’s not if it shows on a particular summer night but when. An owl visit is normal activity when a Martin colony is located within an owls territory, or as in my case, an owl moves into the territory of an established Martin colony. My colony was established in 1996 and Until around 2010 I had no owls that I knew of or heard. The area surrounding my neighborhood has since become more conducive habitat for owls and as a result my colony suffered and declined by almost 70%. Since developing ChirpyNest, My Martin colony is rebounding and is now back to the level of occupancy before the owl(s) moved in.

There is not a lot one can do to prevent owls from visiting their colony. It is absolutely wrong to harm a native predator like an owl, nor would I even think of it. Sadly there are those that would, despite that it is illegal. Martins and owls as well as hawks have coexisted forever and will continue to do so in the natural world. We provide housing for purple martins and build up a colony to levels that are a magnet for predators. Some predation is expected and is all part of nature. If predation gets to be more than a Martin landlord can bear, as it did for me, we must innovate. At first I added owl guards in the form of wire baffles designed to prevent the owl from landing at the entry of a gourd or house. These baffles did not do it for me. The next option was to enclose the whole rack in a cage. I was not willing to go to that length so I completely re-thought the housing model and that is how ChirpyNest came into being. 2020 will be year number 5 for The ChirpyNest system at my colony.I hope to increase the number of nesting pairs to at least that of my colony in its peak years of 2004 and 2009 when I had 79 active nests and fledged just over 300 young. I don’t expect to GHO to move out of the area. ChirpyNest has been well worth the time and effort I have put into it and will be the key to reaching this goal and keeping GHO’s from reducing my numbers.