Purple Martin Association of the Dakotas

A few new ASY PM's arrived along with about 10 SY's both M & F, all except one checking for unoccupied cavities. I had expected this to happen when winds switched to SE. New landlords should be watching for activity in the next couple of weeks as more return to the area. I had 5 eggs laid as of Friday"s nest check.

Just a heads up,
Al

Thanks for the migration Heads-up.
There's still Hope for us Hopefuls!

The Dawn Song/D.T. Chatter is on and the Radar's up
Decoys, Pre-nest and mud on the cavity's.

Ben readin the same is happing well below us, Mom Nature is causing a slow "Trickle-Up" of the migration.
Some reporting a short supply, others report a substantial increase in P.M. numbers.

Hope Perry V. Swoops in /w a report for the colony's he's affiliated with.

Congrats to all who recently received their "Founding Pairs!

Wonder how all the rain/flooding down south is affecting numbers movin-up

Good to hear egg laying has begun at your site.

Jerome

Several more SY's yesterday and today, around 20 or more everything is almost full except for the 32 gourd Gemini rack (about 1/3 full now). If this keeps up I could run out of space, but several pairs usually move on after a week or so.

Al

Al

Good your seeing S.Y.'s.
Spose your exited about the potential to fill the extra 32 compartments!
Colony's around the area must be doing a good job of screen/mop the extra's,
since haven't seen a Purple Feather near the "potential" colony sites I monitor.
How's egg production, any getting close to Pip?
Did you find a Hawk Repellent
Heard anything from Perry or others?

Had 31 eggs last Monday.

Last year had 7 pair nest in gourds on rack. This year there are currently 16 pair.

More SY's arrive daily and most are gone next day. Caught a SY in my Troyer S&S house trap yesterday, usually get a few in the trap every year. The trap is under trees near my house. I believe they are birds only familiar with round holes and can't figure out SREH at dark.

Haven't seen the Cooper's pair for about 2 weeks, must have moved on. Sharpshinned pair are year around residents and I see attacks almost daily early and late in the day. They sweep in like a bullet and circle each house and are gone in a second or two. I have to suspect they are successful some of the time.

I only have about 10 SY pair, same as last year. These birds aren't always successful and some leave after a few weeks.

As to others, not a peep. Perry posts to Facebook once and a while.

Al

So, egg production is just nicely under way, probably 2 wk's or more till pip

If I read you right, we need "More Colony's" in our area's to Build colony's!?
You need S.Y. birds from other colony's to build yours, along /w A.S.Y. birds.
Potential "colony's" in the area, can than share your S.Y. & any extra A.S.Y. birds to get started!
Kinda like a Catch 22!!!

Now, if others in the area will "catch the Passion" for this Hobby and start "Quality"sites around you,
propagation could be greatly increased /w potentially less predation. (spread the pressure!)
How may folks know about your site, do you get many visitors??

Surprises me how the S.Y. birds will enter the trap "under trees", makes one wonder if housing placement
is as critical as stated?

Does it appear birds are being "Snatched" off of Porches, by the Hawks?

Jerome

I will give you MY opinions to the questions you have raised. I feel a lot of the birds that don't stay are heading further north and west like Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. I fledged around 250 last year. I have slightly more ASY's than last year. Considering normal attrition losses of adults and horrible weather to start out, I have acquired quite a few ASY's from somewhere else to replace them. Some of the SY's here had no problem negotiating SREH from the start (lived here last year?).

You need to have successful colonies fledging young in the general area and hope some find the vacant housing. Ideal site location helps lure them.

Many houses around lakes etc. are under trees that have overgrown them, but are generally right near the shoreline. Some under trees are occupied because of an abundance of birds or historically have been occupied. My first house came from my grandfather's home in the mid 50's and was located under trees in the middle of Waubun. I had PM's in this house in south M'pls under very large Elms and Red Oaks. My brother's are on Mille Lacs and two of three are under large shoreline trees (trees were there long before he had houses up) and are usually full. Tree Swallows also co-exist in the same house. One of these houses was mine with enlarged cavities. He changed them back to 6x6 and is full. You can draw your own conclusion.

I am sort of a loner and not many people know about the colony. My young birds will most likely get banded this year and be included in a study by a Bemidji State University researcher. She is doing Geo/GPS research on colonies near Bemidji. She wants to only band mine this year. Either BSU or UMC students will do re-sighting observations in the future. I have never seen a banded PM at my site.

The hawks hunt in tandem and most of the time fly in from the west (trees are closest in that direction) and circle past the east facing holes (the owl guards probably don't slow them down). Sometimes one does a flushing pass and some don't flush. The mate will attack the blind side right after.

Al

AL

"You need to have successful colonies fledging young in the general area and hope some find the vacant housing. Ideal site location helps lure them."

I totally agree /w your above statement, but putting up housing and jumping thru hoops to make upgrades in our
obviously "Martin Poor" area has proved to be futile at best!

Your second statment: On the other side of the coin,starting a colony in basically any housing in any location, reflects results in a "Martin Rich" area!

If there was a way to disperse some of the returning S.Y. birds to start new colony's, the potential
to change our states "Martin Poor" status, could began to improve

JAS