
PURPLE MARTINS Pictured are three baby Purple Martins that are still in the nest Two are visible and the third is in the middle underneath the other two birds
By: Daniel Cooley
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
The Purple Martin, the largest swallow in North America, is about eight inches long, with a wingspan of 16 inches.
And while this bird is listed in the Least Concern category, because of the way this bird nests, the Purple Martin could quickly move into the Endangered category.
In the eastern half of the country where the Purple Martin resides in the spring and summer, this swallow relies almost entirely on houses that are made just for them.
The problem here is that these birds’ caretakers, who provide the houses, are at the average age of 50.
On top of that, their possible successors, from the younger generation, don’t appear to be very interested in inheriting the job.
Jeff Powers, age 63, of rural Swanton, at least for now, is doing his part to help keep the Purple Martin population going.
Powers has 74 Purple Martin nesting cavities in his back yard. In keeping up with what the Martins like, the houses are at least eight feet off the ground, with a pond. Martins like to be near water, where they catch their favorite food, insects, in flight.
According to allaboutbirds.com, the Purple Martin male is dark blue-purple, with brown-black wings and tail.
The female is duller, with “grey on the head and chest, a dingy lower belly and a grey collar around the neck.” The Martins chatter a lot and present a bubbly, musical twitter.
Along with providing the houses, Powers must also monitor potential nesting pests, in the House Sparrow and European Starling. Both birds have been known to kill Martins for their nests.
Powers has never had a problem with Starlings and used to put out traps for the House Sparrow. In recent years, Powers has not had a problem with Sparrows trying to take over Martin houses. Most of the time, the Sparrows occupy empty nest boxes.
“I guess my methods in controlling the House Sparrows worked,” Powers said. Powers is also a member of Project Purple Martin.
He is just one of 10 in the state of Ohio who are involved with the project. “There are a ton more people who have Martins in their back yard, but I guess they don’t get involved with the project because they think it’s too much work,” Powers said.
Powers has four Purple Martin houses that are on poles, eight feet above the ground. The houses have pulleys and cranks, so Powers can crank each house down, until it reaches the ground.
Then, since each cavity has nest boxes, he can open up each cavity and check inside.
With Project Purple Martin, Powers is mailed a form, in which he keeps track of how many nests, how many babies there are and how many have fledged.
And it gets a little more complicated from there. Powers has to tell when the first egg was laid and whether the bird laying the eggs is a first-year bird (hatched and fledged, or successfully flying from the nest, one year ago), a second-year bird, or a veteran bird.
While the form is detailed, Powers said that the questions are not that hard to figure out. The female lays one egg per day and the first ones to lay eggs are the veteran birds.
They are the first ones to arrive back at their nesting site, from their southern migration route of central and South America.
The next birds to arrive and lay their eggs, usually two weeks later, are the second-year birds. The first-year birds arrive one to two weeks after the second-year birds.
Martins typically lay between 3-6 eggs and occasionally, seven eggs. “We have had all seven fledge before,” Powers said.
Once all the eggs are laid in a nest, the female begins incubation, which takes 18 days for the birds to hatch. After hatching, it typically takes 28 days for the birds to fledge.
Powers checks his forms every one or two weeks and his wife Kim records the information. He has all the cavities numbered and can then tell which ones have eggs and how many eggs and which ones have babies in them.
Powers checked all 74 boxes this week. Since Martins removed hatched eggs, Powers was able to tell which ones already had fledged birds.
This can also present a sad time, when babies in a nest are found dead. While this happens every year, Powers only found four dead babies from one nest, this year.
“The mother probably died from a hawk attack, which can happen, too,” Powers said. The tallies for Powers went as follows.
Out of 55 nests and 254 eggs, 135 babies have fledged. There are still 55 babies in nests. If all of those fledge and given that the birds are close to fledging, the chances are that all will.
If so, that would mean that with 190 fledging, 75% of the birds from laid eggs will fledge. Once all the birds have fledged, Powers will send in his form to the Project Purple Martin people.
“If you can get 70% fledges, that is good and 80% or higher is very good,” Powers said. One month after all the birds have fledged, meaning the birds are now on their own, the Martins will conregate in large groups and get ready to migrate south.
Powers has come a long way with the Purple Martins. He first put up houses in 1994 and did not get any Martins nesting, until 1999. That year, he had one nest, with six eggs and all six fledged.
Martin colonies can also be very protective against predators, often mobbing the bird and chasing it off.
Kim witnessed one unusual occurrence where, in the back yard, a big flock of Martins were so heavy on a Bald Eagle, that they took the bird to the ground.
The eagle was unable to fly for a couple of days and was taken to a rehab center. The Powers got quite a kick out of the remark from one of the rehabbers, who did not know what had happened.
“They said that they couldn’t find any reason physically why the bird couldn’t fly, so it must have been traumatized in some way,” Kim said.
Noteworthy: One year ago, Powers purchased Bobwhite Quail from a farmer who raises them, mainly for hunting purposes. But Powers did not want to hunt them.
He wanted to be able to hear the birds give their “bob-white” call, which Powers hadn’t heard sincce he was a youngster. The birds have disappeared from the wild in most of Ohio.
However, spring came, and no sound was coming from the quail. So, Powers went online and purchased a Bobwhite whistle.
Once Powers figured out how to make the proper sound into the whistle, it took the quail just a couple of days to give their “Bob-white” call. Now, they call quite often.
‘Apparently, the birds I purchased were juveniles and they themselves had not been around any adults, so they had never before heard their own call,” Powers said. “They had no adults to learn the call from.”
Dan can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com