Purple Martins
Purple Martins are a member of the swallow family, and the only species of martin in North America. The state of Ct has them listed as a state threatened species. People have been trying to attract martins since the days of the Native Americans. Dried gourds were hung out and martins gladly sought them out for housing. The more aggressive sparrows and starlings often beat the martins out of housing, and if people did not intervene by putting up housing, it is estimated the eastern purple martins would disappear as a breeding species.
Martins feed while flying, capturing airborne insects like mayflies, dragonflies, butterflies (as much as we don't want to think about that) and some mosquitoes. When we have long cold rainy periods, the martins are often in danger of starvation. Some folks have been successful with supplemental feeding with mealworms...but the birds have to be "trained" to accept the mealworms long before the bad weather.
Martins like to nest either in gourds, or in martin housing units much like the ones we have at Hammonasset. They do seem to be fussy though and we have tried to attract them in our Guilford Salt Meadow Sanctuary with the apartment style housing unit, calling them in with the traditional "dawnsong"vocalizations played with a solar powered mp3 player and decoy martins placed on the house to summon them in. None of our efforts prevailed so this year we have purchased a gourd unit, hoping that may entice them.
Martins tend to like to be near humans, it's presumed over the years they have figured out there is less chance of predation closer to people. They also like to have their housing unit be in a flight path, away from trees. The area around the pole needs to be free of vegetation, again decreasing the concern for predators.
Generally we expect the martins to return from their winter home mid-April. The first martins to arrive are scouts and are the older males or females "scouting" for a good housing site. They may show up several weeks before the younger birds. Martins tend to like to come back to the same area they have had successful breeding. Last year we needed to move the units near the nature center 50 feet away from the original spot, it was interesting to see how long it took the martins to accept the moved housing units. If you look at the bird in the photo above, you can see he (I presume he is a juvenile male based on his mottled chest) is banded with a blue band. The state has been banding martins and monitoring where they return to. The blue band is another martin colony in Clinton, not far from Hammonasset. Birds from our sites are banded with orange or green jewelry.
When the birds first come back, they generally are seen early morning and late afternoon as they hunt for food away from their nest. Once nesting has begun they stay close to home. You may notice that our houses stay closed all winter and only get opened once the birds have arrived. They are "capped" to prevent European starlings and House Sparrows from building nests before the martins arrive. Starlings and sparrows are a primary threat to the martins, and we are continually monitoring the houses looking for signs they are taking over a martin nest.
Here is the website to watch the progression of the scouts in North America, it is updated every time one is reported
http://www.purplemartin.org/scoutreport/
Martins feed while flying, capturing airborne insects like mayflies, dragonflies, butterflies (as much as we don't want to think about that) and some mosquitoes. When we have long cold rainy periods, the martins are often in danger of starvation. Some folks have been successful with supplemental feeding with mealworms...but the birds have to be "trained" to accept the mealworms long before the bad weather.
Martins like to nest either in gourds, or in martin housing units much like the ones we have at Hammonasset. They do seem to be fussy though and we have tried to attract them in our Guilford Salt Meadow Sanctuary with the apartment style housing unit, calling them in with the traditional "dawnsong"vocalizations played with a solar powered mp3 player and decoy martins placed on the house to summon them in. None of our efforts prevailed so this year we have purchased a gourd unit, hoping that may entice them.
Martins tend to like to be near humans, it's presumed over the years they have figured out there is less chance of predation closer to people. They also like to have their housing unit be in a flight path, away from trees. The area around the pole needs to be free of vegetation, again decreasing the concern for predators.
Generally we expect the martins to return from their winter home mid-April. The first martins to arrive are scouts and are the older males or females "scouting" for a good housing site. They may show up several weeks before the younger birds. Martins tend to like to come back to the same area they have had successful breeding. Last year we needed to move the units near the nature center 50 feet away from the original spot, it was interesting to see how long it took the martins to accept the moved housing units. If you look at the bird in the photo above, you can see he (I presume he is a juvenile male based on his mottled chest) is banded with a blue band. The state has been banding martins and monitoring where they return to. The blue band is another martin colony in Clinton, not far from Hammonasset. Birds from our sites are banded with orange or green jewelry.
When the birds first come back, they generally are seen early morning and late afternoon as they hunt for food away from their nest. Once nesting has begun they stay close to home. You may notice that our houses stay closed all winter and only get opened once the birds have arrived. They are "capped" to prevent European starlings and House Sparrows from building nests before the martins arrive. Starlings and sparrows are a primary threat to the martins, and we are continually monitoring the houses looking for signs they are taking over a martin nest.
Here is the website to watch the progression of the scouts in North America, it is updated every time one is reported
http://www.purplemartin.org/scoutreport/