Any Day Now

Although winter still has a few more weeks to go before the official beginning of spring, the arrival of my first Martin can happen any day now. Four of the last five years my first arrival has been between march 1st and 5th. The weather is not the best for early arrivals and the week ahead is forecast to be highs in the thirties and lows in the low twenties. Hopefully the martins will stay south at least until this cold snap passes but I have seen them arrive with ice hanging from the housing.

The first birds, or scouts, are easy to miss if I am not outside during morning hours or at the end of the day. The majority of the day the birds are out and about the area feeding.

I have my houses up , pre-nested and ready to go as of last weekend. I still need to put the housing up at the Virginia Highlands Community College site and will take care of that this coming week.

Many new landlords are incorporating ChirpyNest for the 2019 season, including the Cavity Nester Conservancy in Texas and Johnson’s Worlds largest purple Martin colony in Alabama. Both sites will have large number of ChirpyNest along with plastic gourds and will be a good comparison opportunity to study attractiveness to the martins and ease of use by the landlords.

My Peaceful Valley Purple Martin colony for 2019 includes 7 housing poles with a total of 134 cavities. Retired this year is one of my first houses, a converted 4 compartment old trio house that typically had 4 cavities hanging underneath.

Starting a colony? House,gourd or ChirpyNest?

Thoughts on what makes a new site attractive to purple martins

Every year at this time, wanna-be purple martin landlords have the same question.  Even  experienced Purple Martin landlords are not always absolute in their answer to this question as there are many factors to consider.

The question?

What is the best housing to attract Purple Martins? 

Answers vary from :

Use what others in your area use, to definite opinions regarding gourds, or particular house designs.  The ease of attracting martins for the first time is often related to the Martin population in that area of the Martin range. Many seemingly ideal sites go unoccupied leaving one to offer an assortment of housing styles in order to cover all the bases. 

For me, before I developed ChirpyNest, I would have recommended natural gourds, to someone trying to attract martins for the first time.  My colony of martins never preferred plastic gourds.  In fact until I added tunnels I was regretting buying plastic gourds at all.  Even now for a new landlord I  recommend offering natural gourds along with ChirpyNest in order to attract that first pair. Once established though, ChirpyNest is far better and I would wean off natural gourds.

I built my colony on natural gourds, added a T-14 along with enlarged trio houses. After ten years I began to replace my natural gourds with plastic super gourds and Troyer horizontals. Lack of time to keep naturals in top shape and the time to initially prepare them is why converted to plastic.

Coinciding with my switch to plastic gourds, 2011-2015,  my colony declined from 70  to 25 pair and low occupancy of the plastic gourds was disappointing .  The addition of tunnels to the plastic gourds helped make them more attractive but as more and more conversions were needed ,such as vents, and vented lids in order to make these gourds livable, I developed the ChirpyNest as a better way to house my martins.

What makes a potential nest site stand out to purple martins?  Is it the shape of the cavity?

The opening as seen from afar? Have we conditioned the martins to look for housing sitting atop a pole?  Maybe passing martins see telephone poles as tree snags, their instinctual nesting place, and upon investigating these potential nest sites they stumble upon our house offerings, presented from their perspective in a similar way.

Given a choice, I feel martins prefer a bit of space between cavities, hence the current  preference for gourds, especially when starting a colony. Considering the issue with porch in condominium style housing reassures this belief. Once a colony is established and the birds are secure that the site is a safe one, they will take up residence in housing with closer neighbors.  I have experienced this at my own colony where the area wide Martin population is small.  This also seems to hold true range wide as one thing Most landlords seem to agree on is to add gourds to traditional houses if you are trying to attract martins for the first time. This advice would seem to support the theory that the additional space between cavities makes the cavity and site more attractive.  It could also support the theory that the birds are attracted to the gourd shape but when you ask the question Why? It forces you to think a bit further.  I think gourds are attractive because a gourd hangs as an individual nesting cavity, with territorial space between the next cavity.

  Once a nest site is productive , the martins remain loyal to that site and will return to nest year after year.  From an initial colony, related birds will find nearby sites more easily but the first seed is that tough one to sprout, especially in low Martin population areas. Do martin fledglings imprint on housing type they are raised in?  I have doubts,  but I do think parents will return to the same type housing if they were successful in raising their young.

When I envisioned the ChirpyNest,  I set out to develop housing that is better for purple martins and better for the Martin landlord.  I think I have succeeded by overcoming the deficiencies of gourds, such as poor ventilation ,while enhancing the positive aspects of current Martin housing,  retaining the  the territorial space purple martins prefer.

The martins have filled the ChirpyNest cavities  better than they ever used plastic gourds at my sites.  Because of the superior cavity environment the ChirpyNest will be even more attractive than gourds to purple martins looking to establish new sites. ChirpyNest has become the preferred cavity at my established sites and my colony has rebounded. 

I am looking forward to another Martin season, the fourth using the ChirpyNest.  I hope to gather more information from other landlords on the success their birds have using the ChirpyNest.  Time will tell just how much better the martins do while raising young in ChirpyNest houses. I am most excited to see how landlords incorporating ChirpyNest, do in their attempt to attract that first pair of martins. 

As the calendar turns to February  I am thinking of warmer days ahead and the return of my Purple Martins. 

I welcome your thoughts or comments on this topic. 

Commit to doing Nest Checks in 2019

There are always questions and debate about the best type of housing for our Purple Martins. Landlords that have a thriving colony know that martins will accept many conditions and types of housing once established. It then becomes about productivity of the colony and ease of management. Number of pairs, eggs laid, how many young are produced and how many hatchlings survive to fledge. There is only one way to get an idea of the productivity of your colony. Nest Checks.

I use a reporters notebook to record my weekly nest check data.

A typical Purple Martin nest on left. after young are transferred to new bedding on the right.

weekly nest check data is transferred to Martin watch sheets to send to PMCA.

I have been on both sided of the debate whether to do nest checks or not. Early on I did not want to disturb my newly acquired martins. It took me many years of trying before I attracted my first pair and I didn't want to rock the boat. I did however over come my hesitation those first years and using a flashlight and telescoping mechanics mirror would lower my natural gourd housing and inspect through the round openings to count eggs and those first hatchlings. After parents began feeding I did not continue checks for fear of scaring off my martins. This early data, and end of season clean out was all I relied on to estimate my yearly numbers.

As my colony grew those first few years, advances in Martin management brought such innovations as starling resistant openings and access ports to natural gourds. I would collect empty gallon mayo jars from restaurants and search out 4 inch wide plastic jars of any type in order to convert the gourds I grew into the high tech Martin house that is now represented by its plastic form. Nest checks became a weekly part of my colony management. Accurate numbers of the productivity of my colony gave me pleasure that I was doing all the right things in making my colony strong and the annual submission of my Martinwatch data gave me special feeling of accomplishment.

It was after I became steadfast about nest checks that I realized how hard young martins have it. The healthiest nestlings one week could be dead or completely missing the nest week. The cause of such events are always mysterious and have to be reasoned out. Fortunately this is the exception most seasons, but the disappearance of one or two nestlings from a clutch is a normal occurrence in many cavities and is all but expected. The larger the colony the more likely for these disappearances to go unnoticed, unless one is conducting regular nest checks. Relying on egg count, or hatch count is not going to give you any idea of the productivity of your colony. Small young that die in the nest are often disintegrate if not removed from the nest by parents, and older young that die can easily go undetected at the end of season clean out. To have an accurate idea of the young that are fledging from your colony you have to be doing regular nest checks and keeping records.

Are nest checks a required duty of a Martin landlord? I would say no, with a big BUT. If you want to experience a new level of landlording, nest checks provide a landlord with a satisfaction that they are doing all they can to help their colony. Conducting regular nest checks will open your eyes to the tough life Purple Martins have and give an appreciation for the gift of life around us. If I Had not committed to doing nest checks I would not have had reason to develop the ChirpyNest system.

For 2019 if not already doing so, make a commitment to doing nest checks at your colony. Keep records. Make notes of the experience. Nest checks take a small amount of time and commitment. The extra effort is well worth it, the knowledge gained is great and the satisfaction of increasing the productivity of your colony is unattainable any other way.

2019 season has begun!!

With the first reports of martins arriving in Florida it is time to get excited again for the Martin season ahead. Thanks to my son again for his expertise in updating my ChirpyNest video for 2019. The video we shot last year had to be done in my very crowded workshop, due to the wet rainy weather we had at the time. This year , mild temperatures allowed us to get to the rack to do a video that felt much more in touch with the Purple Martins we are all anticipating. HAPPY NEW YEAR to all and best wishes for a productive year ahead.

HERE IS THE 2019 CHIRPYNEST VIDEO.