Be My Purple Martin Valentine

A break in the weather afforded us a chance to spruce up our martin houses. The scouts should be arriving soon, and we want them to bring back last years's colony.

Our first step was to lower the houses. When the school year ended last June, the colony was thriving. They exhibited a strong preference for the older metal houses. By the time school started in August, the houses had been abandoned.

Before cleaning, we took time to examine the old nests. Of the 24 apartments in the metal houses, 22 showed evidence of habitation. The two empty spots were missing the front walls. 

 

Only one of the gourd houses had the telltale mud and twigs of a martin nest. On two occasions last spring we discovered sparrows nesting in the polygourds. We relocated those to the nearby woods. 

We did not find a completed swallow nest which is mostly just a swirl of straw. But, almost every gourd had a few pieces of straw.

Sadly, we did find the remains of a young martin. Hannah found 4 eggs in one apartment. In another, one egg didn't hatch. We set these aside for further investigation once the houses were clean.

 

The polygourds required very little cleaning and zero maintenance. The metal houses were dirty and in pretty rough shape. They looked like they had survived a barrage of artillery. I don't understand why anyone would throw rocks at birdhouses, but over the years this has been fairly common. After scraping and brushing them out, we straightened out and replaced the floors, front walls, and railing pieces.

Once we completed the spring cleaning and raised the houses back up their poles, it was time for our "eggtopsies." The contents of two of the eggs were liquid.

The other three contained more solid masses. We detected no foul odors. The consistency of two of them looked similar to a boiled chicken egg. One seemed more like a fetus, although we could not detect and discernible body parts.

We are eagerly awaiting the return of the martins and are keeping our eyes pealed for the scouts.

Photos by Matthew and David