[TN-Bird] Hail Damage To Purple Martin Gourds
- From: "David Stone" <rockyturf@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 10:24:47 -0500
This is so trivial compared to people loosing their houses to Friday's
storms I hate to post (2 of our employees lost their homes). However I feel I
need to tell anyone with natural gourds for Purple Martins that had hail to
check for damage. We had replaced all our natural gourds this winter before the
first Martins showed up (which was March 1 this year - not the earliest nor the
latest I have seen them). About half our gourds were badly broken by the hail
(none of the plastic gourds were damaged). We had several females this morning
using the undamaged gourds.
This is our second year in a row of storm damage to our Martin gourds. The
April 27 storm of 2011 bent over all the poles in one of our sites. The gourds
had babies and eggs that were thrown onto the ground. For the first 2 weeks
after the storm we had to clear the golf course of downed trees, etc. to have
any time for the Martins. Most left but 3 pair remained. We bought new poles
and put the plastic gourds back up. The 3 pair made new nest and all fledged
birds. With the late start I was hoping to have Martins much later into the
summer than the usual early-mid July departure. I was disappointed when they
fledged and left on July 12 which is about the same date as the colonies that
were not destroyed by the storm.
I see lots of poles and gourds for Martins in the area that are not cleaned
out or maintained and thus they do not have Martins. We find the natural gourds
only last 2 seasons and have to be replaced a lot more often than most people
realize.
David Stone
The Honors Course
Ooltewah, Tn.
Hamilton Co.
Other related posts:
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