pmc colony records

Start date: June 2000

Housing type/s:
1) Self made Troyer T-14 (14 compartments with 4 additional hanging "Super-gourds").
2) 12 unit "Super-gourd" rack.

Season 2000

A few martins live in the area about a half a block away at the neighbors but none visted.

Season 2001

Nest Record totals

Comments:
Starling attack on 5/20 killed one female and robbed one family's nest. Parents started over to lay five more eggs. Doors on T-14 converted from round holes to starling proof crescent shaped holes. No more problems.

One family started laying eggs on 6/20 and the parents did not make a nest first. Laid them on wooden nest tray floor. The eggs dried up. I put in nesting material and the mother laid 4 more eggs starting on 7/22. They never hatched and were later abandoned.

Season 2002

Click here to see individual nest records to date.

Nest Record totals

Comments:
It was a good year for the martins. 10 families laid a total of 45 eggs and 35 babies fledged successfully. One nest was abandoned and 3 babies from other nests were found on the ground dead. Starlings were of no concern this year although I did trap about 5 of them. Sparrows were an irritation but the colony was big enough this year to fight off the sparrows on their own. Mites were terrible and along with the cool spring and hot summer conditions I was surprised how well the families got along. (Very cold March and April, below normal temps with June and July being hot and dry. August gave us much needed rain). Overall, the colony doubled in size this year from last and hopefully, will do the same in 2003.

Season 2003

Click here to see individual nest records to date. Martins arrived April 20th, 2 days later than 2002. The weather was very cool with temperatures in the freezing range at night. The house was lowered 3 ft and the pole reinforced to eliminate a bad bow due to the strong and regular winds we get here in Iowa.

Nest Record totals

Comments:

Season 2004

Click here to see individual nest records to date. Martins arrived April 16th. This year I filled all the nest compartments with ground corn shucks so the martins would have an easy time of nest building. First year to have a full time nest box cam for folks to look at up on the web site.

Nest Record totals

Comments: I think they liked the corn shucks although they do throw a bunch of it out on the ground.

Season 2005

Click here to see individual nest records to date. Martins arrived April 9th. It's been a mild spring so far with cool weather. Made one significant change this year, moved the gourd rack to within about 6 ft of the T-14. This should encourage more Martins to use the gourds and overall, help increase the number of successful fledglings at the end of the season. First year to have three individual close-up cams along with a nest cam for the web site viewers.

Nest Record totals

Comments: I purchased mealworms to feed the martins in hope that it may help them during a few days of very cold temps. I tried to throw them up in the air so they could dine but, they did not seem to see the mealworms. They were attentive to me but were still cautious. I also set a tray of mealworms out nearby and tried to lure them to the garage lean-to roof where I threw some more on top. All failed to gain any interest. I did count 16 Martins so there was a highlight in the sorry attempt to feed them. Moving the gourd rack closer to the T-14 house definitely made an improvement by attracting more Martins at the beginning of the season. Only a slight improvement towards increasing the numbers of families at the end of the season.

Season 2006

Click here to see individual nest records to date. Martins arrived April 10th. The first serious nest check on 6/4 revealed 29 eggs in 7 boxes and two gourds for a total of nine families to date. Although the partial nest and green leave stages were skipped this year do to organizational difficulties, all looks good on the Martin side of getting the job done :-)

Nest Record totals

Season 2007

Martins arrived around April 16th just after a harsh spell of cold and snow. The first serious nest check on 6/8 revealed 87 eggs in 12 boxes and 5 gourds for a total of 17 families to date.

Nest Record totals

Copyright © 1998-2008 Jeffry Blair.