EZ now...

I installed EZ Off Pole Guards this week. My colony's numbers are well above 100 and growing.

Colony photo.

Numbers at my colony has really picked up. I now expect to reach or exceed last year's numbers. The weather has been great, and will continue with warm temp's and no rain expected for the next ten days.

Nite Guards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I cannot speak of the Nite Guards effectiveness against owls as I have never had a serious owl problem, and have had no issues this year. But I hope I am not ruining my luck by telling everyone I have had no hawk attacks this year during the very early dawn hours when the devices are still flashing.

By this time of year I would have normally witnessed or observed the remnants of 3-4 successful dawn hawk attacks, so it seems to have helped prevent the early morning lurking when they sit in wait.

I have witnessed three attacks during the day without success, but I have never beem concerned about those as they are rarely successful here until the fledglings are hanging around as hawk bait. I have wide open space for about a half to full mile in all directions, except for the trees in my own yard.

It is still early and the verdict is still out, but so far so good for early morning hawk incidents. Knock on wood.

Robert
__________________

Geolocators

The PMCA put geolocators on a few purple martins from Pennsylvania and Texas, and their migration south and back north the following year were tracked. The PMCA learned the exact routes the martins took, the time spent at certain locations, etc. From the little information that Louise Chambers has disclosed on Facebook, martins from both Texas and Pennsylvania spend time in the Yucatan peninsula going north and south.

Also what got my attention was that martins migrating south for the winter takes six weeks to get to the Yucatan peninsula, and martins flying north in the spring only takes two weeks. This was true for both Texas and Pennsylvania martins.

This is just the opposite of what I thought, as I was always under the impression it would take them longer to fly north because of climate, but that is not true.

The PMCA plans on publishing this information in the winter issue of the PM Update. It should be fascinating.

Upsurge

I recently made a few adjustments on my 2010 set-up, and thought I would take a snapshot of it, especially since I have finally cut my grass. In this photo the martins are still away feeding and I use that time to bring down racks and do what needs to be done. What I decided to do over the weekend was to do away with round hole gourds. I only had approx 10 or so and they were still plugged, but the way my martins have accepted the Conley II entries, I don't see any reason to offer round holes anymore. I have a couple dozen crescents and the rest of my 224 gourds are now Conley II's.

I also have a bed & breakfast in the rear of the gourd racks, and four flashing Nite Guard Lights mounted on one of my racks, with them facing north, east, south and west.

The weather has been great the past week or so and I have observed an upsurge in arriving ASY's. But my martin numbers are still down from a yer ago, or at least it seems that way.

I have had several hawk attacks, but as far as I know, the hawk was unsuccessful. Martin decoys have been found turned upside down, and this morning not only was one upside down, it was muddy! Guess the hawk got his feet muddy on his last meal.

Continuing blog

I got very busy during the NCAA Basketball Tourney that I neglected my blog. Not that anyone reads it, but it's good therapy for me. I can say what I want about anything I want.

Conley II's a Hit!

The Conley II's seem to be easily negotiated by martins, so easily that I am doing away with the few round holes I was planning. This will be the first year I have been 100% SREH.