Photo by Cynthya Porter
Local purple martin landlords are lamenting the absence of the bird from many of their traditional summer homes this year. These houses owned by Bob Tropple are empty for the first time in many years. |
Deluxe gourd racks, multiunit condos, platform feeders and ground winches... The competition is fierce and there are, it seems, no limits to the lengths to which people will go to attract purple martins to their neighborhood.
The payoff is big - each purple martin eats its own body weight in flying insects every day, and once they choose a home the loyal, friendly birds will come back for generations.
For most would-be landlords it is an exercise in meticulous planning and patience when trying to attract birds for the first time, an exercise Winonan Bob Tropple knows all too well.
To land his first nesting pair took years, Tropple said, and included moving the condo to locations around his yard, fretting over its height and surrounds, and eventually painting it white, the apparent martin color of choice.
That, it turns out, was the magic piece of the puzzle, and seeing those first martin heads poking out of his condo holes was like winning the lottery after years spent trying. Tropple put up more houses and built them for his neighbors and son, and before long they had all attained the hard-earned title of purple martin landlords.
But Tropple and other neighborhood landlords were left scratching their heads this spring after their cheerful annual tenants did not arrive.
For some, so anticipated is the return of their purple martins that it feels like being stood up for a dance that lasts the whole summer long.
For Tropple, it is the first time in 20 years the social birds have not raised their families in his houses, and he has no idea why.
The digs, after all, are as nice as ever, with housekeeping services and a fresh coat of white paint.
A scan of all the known purple martin lodgings in Tropple’s neighborhood shows much the same, with gourds and condos usually filled with chattering birds standing quiet save for the occasional grackle that tries to move in.
The answer to the mystery of the missing martins may not be a simple one, bird expert Sharon Stiteler said.
Stiteler, otherwise known as the Bird Chick in regional and national birding publications, is author of City Birds, Country Birds, a book about attracting birds regardless of location, and writes a popular birding blog at birdchick.com.
According to Stiteler, migration to the area was stalled in April due to low pressure systems in the south. That delay seems to have upset normal migration patterns in which birds like purple martins send scout males first, followed later by females.
But in addition to unusual migration, early May in Minnesota was unseasonably cold, Stiteler said, likely meaning the flying insect population was greatly reduced.
Purple martins rely entirely on catching insects “on the wing,” meaning in flight, and they gravitate to waterways when the insect population inland is low, explained Stiteler. Late scouting and May’s low temperatures could have pushed the martins towards nesting places along the river, she said.
Or the answer may be something else entirely.
Though they are considered loyal birds to a particular house, they can be a bit touchy, Stiteler said. “If one tiny thing happens it can be enough for them to abandon a colony.”
Predators, often unseen by landlords, can easily spook martins away from a nesting place. Owls and coopers hawks are known for raiding purple martin houses, as are raccoons and even snakes making their way up the tall pole.
At the first sign of such trouble, purple martins will flee and will not come back, Stiteler said.
Also problematic are certain pushy nonnative birds like house sparrows and starlings, both of whom love purple martin houses. It’s not just that they’re not neighborly, said Stiteler, it’s that they are downright vicious to birds like purple martins. “They are surprisingly aggressive,” she said, “like small Joe Pescis.” And once those species have nested in a house once, they will come back in greater numbers the next year and the next. Keeping them at bay, said Stiteler, is essential to having a population of purple martins.
Those species nest early in April, and keeping martin houses closed until later in the month can keep them from taking up residence and frightening away scouting purple martins, Stiteler said. In fact, landlords can keep houses closed until they see the first scouts passing through the area, which almost always happens by tax day in April, she said.
But it might not be predators or competitors that cause a longtime purple martin house to lose its charm, Stiteler said. It might be that they just don’t like the way the neighborhood feels anymore, kind of.
Purple martins typically like to nest on the highest point in an area with a wide radius of open view around them, often as much as 300 feet, Stiteler said. Over the years trees may grow taller than the condo pole or may encroach with branches closer to the house than purple martins are comfortable with.
Something as simple as a vine growing up the bird house pole can cost purple martin landlords their prized birds, Stiteler said.
And unfortunately, she said, once they’re gone, a landlord pretty much has to start over to get them back.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of resources available to help those in the market for purple martins. The 2010 Martin Marketplace published by the Purple Martin Conservation Association contains more than the mind can imagine for attracting and sustaining martins, from song tapes to lure them to predator deterrents to keep them safe. And there are condos and gourds of every shape and size, mostly white of course.
Gazing up at his empty colony setup, Tropple is a bit crestfallen. He remembers being a boy of 10 or 12, the only one with hands small enough to clean out the houses his parents had.
And he remembers the thrill of his first pair and how he came to enjoy their unusual chatter over the years as the colony grew. “You come out in the morning and listen to the way they vocalize back and forth,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it pretty, but it’s distinctive.”
The birds, he said, are friendly and unusually social with people, often preferring to live near homes rather than away from them. “You walk right under the pole and they start squawking down at you, it’s almost like they’re talking to you,” Tropple said.
But for the rest of this year the yard will be silent and Tropple will have to go down to the river where he spotted a few if he wants to see his missing neighbors. He hopes next year they’ll be back, he said, and if they do he’ll have their summer home cleaned up and waiting.
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