Purple Martin (PUMA) house at the Biocore Prairie - 2021
June 12
PUMA nestlings in Gourd A. About 4 days old. Photo Richard Ness
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Richard Ness photographed these nestlings about 3 days after hatching. All six eggs in the nest have hatched. Now the parents have the daunting task providing nourishment for all of them. Once a parent is near the gourd, he or she is greeted by six little beaks outlined in yellow to stand out in the dark, opened wide and begging for food. During Day 3, the hatchlings are still receiving additional nutrition from the embryonic yolk bags, their large transparent bellies.
Richard reported further: "I checked on the Martins today 6/12/2021, at about 11:20AM. We now have seven Martin nests with eggs / young. Gourd/ house number. Number of eggs/young A. Has 6 young! All 6 eggs hatched! B. Has 5 eggs C. Has 5 eggs D. Has 5 eggs #4 has 1 egg #11 has 5 eggs #14 has 4 eggs That’s a total of 25 eggs and six young nestlings.!! Wow big change from last year. House Sparrows have nesting material in both # 5 and 6, but I did not check their nests for eggs today. Martins everywhere! |
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June 8
Richard Ness' amazing update. We have seven Martin nests!! Six nests with eggs! The seventh soon to have eggs! That’s 14 Martins at the house and gourds. Gourds and Number of eggs A. 6 (expected hatching June 9) B. 4 (expected hatching June 15) C. 5 (if this is the final number of eggs, the expected hatching date June 24) D. 2 House number and number of eggs #4 has large nest but no eggs #11 has 2 eggs #14 has 3 eggs And, there is a House Sparrow nest in 6 with no eggs. |
Video by Richard Ness, June 8 2021
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June 1
From the most recent data Richard Ness sent, we can expect the following:
Average hatching time is for Purple martins is 15-16 days.
Gourd A: 4 eggs May 23, 5 eggs May 24, we can assume 6 eggs, May 25.
Breeding, we can assume, started on May 25.
Hatching: Move 16 days ahead, and the possible hatching date is June 10.
Gourd C: No eggs on May 24. 5 eggs on June 1.
If no more eggs are added, then May 29 would be the earliest date when breeding would have started.
Hatching: Earliest June 15, but likely a few days later.
From the most recent data Richard Ness sent, we can expect the following:
Average hatching time is for Purple martins is 15-16 days.
Gourd A: 4 eggs May 23, 5 eggs May 24, we can assume 6 eggs, May 25.
Breeding, we can assume, started on May 25.
Hatching: Move 16 days ahead, and the possible hatching date is June 10.
Gourd C: No eggs on May 24. 5 eggs on June 1.
If no more eggs are added, then May 29 would be the earliest date when breeding would have started.
Hatching: Earliest June 15, but likely a few days later.
The first PUMA eggs of the 2021 season. Photo Richard Ness
May 23 – we have eggs!!
Richard Ness reports: "I checked on the Martins today Sunday May 23, 2021, and here is the first gourd with four eggs. This is the same gourd that last year had Martins. The three other gourds also had Martin nests, two of which look like they will soon have eggs also (green leaves present). At one point when I had the house down, there were so many Martins flying overhead that it was hard to count how many there were. There had to be over 12 or 15 Martins!"
Richard Ness reports: "I checked on the Martins today Sunday May 23, 2021, and here is the first gourd with four eggs. This is the same gourd that last year had Martins. The three other gourds also had Martin nests, two of which look like they will soon have eggs also (green leaves present). At one point when I had the house down, there were so many Martins flying overhead that it was hard to count how many there were. There had to be over 12 or 15 Martins!"
May 15
Over the last few weeks six Martins have settled in the house, occupying three of the gourds. Richard Ness checks out the house twice a week or more. He reports today: "This afternoon I ... took this photo of six Martins resting on the the house. I removed the “fake” Martin about a week or more ago. So all the Matins are real, there are five on the house and one female sitting on the gourd. No sparrows today."
Over the last few weeks six Martins have settled in the house, occupying three of the gourds. Richard Ness checks out the house twice a week or more. He reports today: "This afternoon I ... took this photo of six Martins resting on the the house. I removed the “fake” Martin about a week or more ago. So all the Matins are real, there are five on the house and one female sitting on the gourd. No sparrows today."
Six Purple martins at the house. Photo Richard Ness
April 30, Opening additional nest boxes
Chuck Henrikson reports: Will Vuyk and i got together at noon yesterday at the PUMA (purple martins) house and I showed him how to do various things with the house. We spent an hour there. We opened all four sides and realized that some drawers had already been turned around so that 10 of the drawers were now open to the outside. I had not heard that anyone had done this. We removed two House sparrow nests and put pine needles in all 10 of the drawers.
Chuck Henrikson reports: Will Vuyk and i got together at noon yesterday at the PUMA (purple martins) house and I showed him how to do various things with the house. We spent an hour there. We opened all four sides and realized that some drawers had already been turned around so that 10 of the drawers were now open to the outside. I had not heard that anyone had done this. We removed two House sparrow nests and put pine needles in all 10 of the drawers.
Two adult & two subadult PUMAs perched after raising the house. Photo Henrikson
Two adult & two subadult PUMAs perch on PUMA house after raising, plus a decoy. Photo Henrikson
While we did this 3 PUMAs flew around us vocalizing. As time went on another one came flying in so we were up tow 4 PUMAs. Near the end there were 6 PUMAs at the house, 3 adults and 3 subadults. They were vocalizing all the time. Two left after the house was up for a while leaving 4.
April 28, 2021 - Adult PUMAs at the house
Richard Ness reports: "This afternoon around 1:15pm I saw all four gourds with Adult Martins on them or going inside at the same time. There were at least eight martins at the house. This is my first time seeing any Martins this spring at the house.... all I have seen so far is one house sparrow until today.
Richard Ness reports: "This afternoon around 1:15pm I saw all four gourds with Adult Martins on them or going inside at the same time. There were at least eight martins at the house. This is my first time seeing any Martins this spring at the house.... all I have seen so far is one house sparrow until today.
One adult and one subadult martin. Photo Chuck Henrikson.
Early that day Chuck Henrikson visited the PUMA house. He reported: "I stopped by the PUMA house at 10:30 this morning and saw one adult and two subadult Purple Martins in and around the house and gourds. The subadults were going in and out of all the gourds. The adult remained perched on the outside. These are the first i've seen this year." The next day, Chuck and Will Vuyk opened about half of the nest boxes in the house.
March 31, 2021 – Repair wind damage
Chuck Henrikson, David Liebl and Paul Noeldner met at the Biocore Prairie PUMA house Wednesday March 31 to repair the mounting for the new Purple Martin house gourds that were knocked loose by recent high winds. Stronger metal hanging straps were cleverly adapted by David to securely bolt the hanging rod to the Martin House. We were entertained by one of the resident Red-tailed Hawks perched at Eagle Heights Gardens, Song Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds singing, and a reported sighting of both a male and female Bluebird at one of the nearby Bluebird Boxes. Fresh pine needles were added to several open nest slots by Chuck and everything is ready for Purple Martin scouts to arrive soon. Photos by Paul Noeldner.
The current Scout arrival map on the purplemartin.org website shows that adults have arrived in Wisconsin and subadults have been spotted as far north as Arkansas.
Chuck Henrikson, David Liebl and Paul Noeldner met at the Biocore Prairie PUMA house Wednesday March 31 to repair the mounting for the new Purple Martin house gourds that were knocked loose by recent high winds. Stronger metal hanging straps were cleverly adapted by David to securely bolt the hanging rod to the Martin House. We were entertained by one of the resident Red-tailed Hawks perched at Eagle Heights Gardens, Song Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds singing, and a reported sighting of both a male and female Bluebird at one of the nearby Bluebird Boxes. Fresh pine needles were added to several open nest slots by Chuck and everything is ready for Purple Martin scouts to arrive soon. Photos by Paul Noeldner.
The current Scout arrival map on the purplemartin.org website shows that adults have arrived in Wisconsin and subadults have been spotted as far north as Arkansas.
Gisela and Chuck working the winch. Photo by Paul Noeldner.
March 14, 2021 – Grand Season Opening
On this glorious, crisp and sunny morning, Chuck Henrikson and Gisela Kutzbach met at the house to remove the winter covering of the winch mechanism, refresh the nesting boxes, and open two of them for occupation. During the last stages of removing duct tape gook with Goop, Paul Noeldner came up the trail, hauling in his wagon his do-it-all tool kit, four Troyer gourds and new aluminum rods, which he had picked up at Gisela's garage.
In the meantime David Liebl, on his bird walk from Bill's Woods, joined the group and pitched in. In about another hour, the four gourds were perfectly placed, the new perching rods installed, and the winch oiled one more time. The Purple Martin House is as attractive as ever.
We are hoping that the small flocks of purple martins that visited the house on their migration south last fall will take interest in the Friends sponsored Biocore house on their journey north again – and stay. It could also be that later in May / June the subadults, who hatched here last year, will return.
While the purple martins have yet to return to Wisconsin, the crew was happy to see a bluebird perch by one of the new, beautiful bluebird boxes. In addition, the group saw a juvenile and adult pair of red-tailed hawks and song sparrows singing nearby, and turkey vultures circling overhead.
We again have a committed monitor team this season with:
(Janis Cooper)
Chuck Henrikson
Gisela Kutzbach
David Liebl
Seth McGee
Nicole Miller
Paul Noeldner
Will Vuyk
Seth and Paul are our main mechanics; David, Nicole and Will are new to the team and will have their training sessions in April.
On this glorious, crisp and sunny morning, Chuck Henrikson and Gisela Kutzbach met at the house to remove the winter covering of the winch mechanism, refresh the nesting boxes, and open two of them for occupation. During the last stages of removing duct tape gook with Goop, Paul Noeldner came up the trail, hauling in his wagon his do-it-all tool kit, four Troyer gourds and new aluminum rods, which he had picked up at Gisela's garage.
In the meantime David Liebl, on his bird walk from Bill's Woods, joined the group and pitched in. In about another hour, the four gourds were perfectly placed, the new perching rods installed, and the winch oiled one more time. The Purple Martin House is as attractive as ever.
We are hoping that the small flocks of purple martins that visited the house on their migration south last fall will take interest in the Friends sponsored Biocore house on their journey north again – and stay. It could also be that later in May / June the subadults, who hatched here last year, will return.
While the purple martins have yet to return to Wisconsin, the crew was happy to see a bluebird perch by one of the new, beautiful bluebird boxes. In addition, the group saw a juvenile and adult pair of red-tailed hawks and song sparrows singing nearby, and turkey vultures circling overhead.
We again have a committed monitor team this season with:
(Janis Cooper)
Chuck Henrikson
Gisela Kutzbach
David Liebl
Seth McGee
Nicole Miller
Paul Noeldner
Will Vuyk
Seth and Paul are our main mechanics; David, Nicole and Will are new to the team and will have their training sessions in April.
Bluebird near Biocore Prairie and the Eagle Heights Community Gardens on March 14, 2021. Photo by Paul Noeldner.
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Predator-proof poles protect the bluebird houses installed by Jeff Koziol. Photo by Paul Noeldner photos
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Work is done for season opening. Paul, Gisela, Chuck. Photo by David Liebl
