This year in Pa.

[David Masland]

My first males arrived on April 11, within a week I had some 35 pairs at the site. Most of the birds arrived on the 15th after some strong south winds. Egg laying was delayed by some extreme cold weather but by mid May most of the birds had eggs or were in the last stages of nest construction. The first of the young started to fledge in early July, with all of the young on the wing by the 20th of the month. My beast estimate as to the number of young is between 60 to 65 this year. I did have some problems with the heat in mid July causing some of the young to attempt flight when tail feathers and wing feathers were no completely down. I did lose 5 of these young birds to the extreme heat. However all in all it was my best year yet.
Have any of you folks noticed your young taking extra time removing the chaff from secondary feathers? For some reason the young of this year spent an extraordinary amount of time preening secondary feathers. I have to wonder if this is something usually done in the nest, but due to the extreme heat this job was performed outside this year. Any thoughts?

[John Pearson]

The only thing I can think of is that you may have had a bad infestation of mites which really irratates the birds and they try preening their feathers to eleviate the discomfort. It would also explain why they did it out of the nest and on the porches away from the inside where all the parasites were. Also in hotter weather, mites seem to thrive more. They may also be out of the nest for the greater space to spread their wings and tail feathers that they can't do with all their brothers and sisters in the more confined area of the nest.

Congrats on your great year.

John

[David Masland]

John Thank You for the input. I have never had a problem (that I am aware of) with mites. How are they controlled, is there something I can do to make them more comfortable? I spray my houses and plastic Gourds twice a year with a solution of water and Clorox to kill and critters that might be living in them. Once in the fall and again in the spring just before the birds arrive. Is there something that is better for mites that will not affect the birds?

[John Pearson]

Hi David,
They are very small, about the size of the head of a pin so they are harder to see from the ground. While small individually they usually number the hundreds when they are present. They are parasites which are harmless to humans but devastating to extremely young birds. I get them in at least one nest every year so I am always vigilant. When I spot them during a nest check, I take the entire contents of the nest and disgard it. If it's an individual gourd, I take it down and run the hose through it too. If it's a compartment in one of my houses, I throw the nest out and spray rubbing alcohol, which kills them on contact, and wipe down the interior. I generally spray any adjacent compartment too because the mites travel. Left unchecked they will multiply and move to the next nest with active young.Next I put clean new nest material in and carefully place the young back into the nest and close the compartment. You are not successful at totally eradicating the mites but it slows them down and gives the young Purple Martins more time to mature and become stronger and better able at fighting them off.

Another method I have heard people use is to sprinkle some DE (diatamateous earth -sp) in the bottom of each compartment. It's not the DE you get for your pool but the DE you get in garden stores. Supposedly the silica in the DE penetrates an insect's exoskeleton. I have never used it because I have also heard that it can hurt the birds if inhaled etc. I also do not have raised flooring in my house or in my gourds and I think it works best if the floor is raised so that the birds do not come into direct contact with the DE.

The last method I have heard of was to sprinkle the insecticide 'sevin' in the compartment similar to the DE. I'm sure it works great but I would be concerned about the collateral damage to your birds. All the books and experienced landlords do not recommend sevin.

I hope this helps.- John