PM eggs in Larimore, ND

[Caroline]

UPDATE - I checked the nests again today (the 13th) and I now have 37 eggs in eight gourds. I have three nests of six eggs each and two nests of five eggs each!

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After enjoying the Purple Martin house on the Greenway with its eggs I thought I should start checking my gourds more often. Once egg laying begins I normally check them daily.

This is my 12th year of hosting Purple Martins and they still continue to amaze me. Each season has been so very different, and enjoyably familiar, to the others at the same time.

I've seen very little evidence of nest building this season. I've seen a few half-hearted attempts of bringing twigs and straw into the gourds and witnessed several violent fights with the aggressive sub-adults. The flock divides their time between my set-up of 15 gourds, my mentee's colony of three gourds and a house with 12 too-small compartments, and his neighbor's six gourds. All the racks are within three blocks so I consider all our birds one group living in connecting subdivisions. They meet up over my yard when they head out to hunt. It's going to be purple pandaemonium once each of our colonies reach maximum capacity.

I decided to check the gourds yesterday evening in case any of the subbie battles caused an injury. I peeked into several gourds seeing nothing but the well-packed pre-nests I make to start each season. A couple pairs had an added twig or a few leaves. I could see indentions where birds were sleeping.

Then I opened Gourd 4 and saw five eggs! From the faintest of pink coloring and the visible air sac at the rounded end of one of the eggs I know the hen is already incubating them! I also found five more eggs in Gourd 8. For the crowning jewel there was one perfect pearly egg in Gourd 12.

None of these nests had additional nesting material beyond a very few twigs and two or three green leaves. No mud dams, just nest bowls spun into the packed cedar shavings and lovely eggs. Last year the nests were fortified barricades with two-inch high mud dams and straw and twigs packed in tightly enough to shame a HoSP.

So my guys have surprised me again. Eleven eggs in three gourds with green leaves in most of the other gourds. All this right under my nose without me noticing - and I pride myself on being observant. HA! "Pride goeth before the fall."

[SYmywa]

MORNIN CAROLINE

CONGRATS TO THE PM ON THEIR EGG PRODUCTION.

SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD START, TO A LATE SEASON.

DOES A NEST SPUN INTO SHAVINGS, LEAVE THE EGGS RESTING ON THE FLOOR

SO HOW MANY ASY/SY PAIR DO YOU ESTIMATE ARE NESTING AT YOUR SITE?