SKYWATCH FRIDAY – MARE’S TAILS FLYING (Lake Erie)

Tuesday was an extraordinary sky-day; the entire blue dome was full of my favorite kind of clouds. A sweeping panorama was beyond the capabilities of my camera, so I snapped a small part of it over the lake—coming too close to the Purple Martin condo for their comfort, and they took to nervous flight. I posted a while back about how picky Purple Martins can be about their lodgings, so I’m happy to see that in spite of all my concerns about this particular nest site, the Martins are at home in it, even if they are ‘not receiving.’ The second photo is of a cornfield just up the road from the lake. In fact, that little dot of a tree at the far end stands only twenty feet or so from the water.




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GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT

The wheel of summer turns slowly but inexorably. Corn in the fields is now waist high, the second brood of several species of birds is close to fledging, and the lake is busy with crafts of all kinds: elegant gliding sailboats and zippy PWCs, inboards and outboards, putt-putt fishing boats cranking out their nets. Meanwhile the sun has been slowly, inexorably moving, too. Where once it dipped behind the finials of my neighbors' porch, it now sets in the corner of my own, and turns the glass candle holders on the table to colors they've not displayed since they were molten. Peace reigns over the lake at evening. Purple Martins swoop after lacewings in mid-air, their vesper-song mingling with the muted laughter of children splashing in the shallows further down the shore. The fragrant smoke of a backyard bonfire drifts lazily by, and the last rays of fading sunset gutter out.

HAZY DAYS of SUMMER WHEN I WISH I HAD A LAPTOP

Today is one of those pantingly humid Great Lakes summer days. Still, I don't want to even think about how much hotter it could be and will get before very long. There's a bit of a breeze outside, but it somehow doesn't manage to make it through my windows, and the place really heats up in the afternoon. As you can see, I've rigged up a system for maximum shade: a crank down awning that shades the windows, and the market umbrella/table unit that helps shade the concrete. You'd think this would be enough, but it will still get sweltering in a couple of hours. This year the Ontario government has a program of grants to help people upgrade their homes to be more energy-friendly, and I'm going to look into that. I think more and better pink insulation in the attic might be the ticket. Meanwhile, I sit inside at my computer (small corner window under the awning - hi!) with a fan trained on me. There is central air-conditioning in this house, but I want to save it for the really hot dog days. You can also see I have a second market umbrella on the wooden patio, which helps shade the other end of the house, where the bedroom is. I've quit using the patio this summer until some of the rotten boards can be replaced.



If I had a laptop, I could sit outside and work where it's cooler, but alas, I am chained, if not in a tower, to a tower. What a difference a preposition makes. Meanwhile, the lake is making soft ripple sounds along the breakwall rocks, and the martins are swooping about making their own liquid music.

PURPLE MARTINS CONT’D

My previous post about the purple martin house next door brought some great comments and questions, so I decided to do a follow-up post. This is pretty interesting stuff. It always intrigues me how some species end up being generalists that can adapt to a wide variety of habitats and food sources (coyotes, seagulls come to mind) while others become specialists, and put all their evolutionary (and perhaps literal) eggs in one “basket” (like giant pandas or the sword-billed hummingbird, which has evolved and extremely long bill, and feeds only on Passiflora mixta, and possibly a very limited number of other passionflower species).

When I was looking up purple martins for my post, I discovered what many of you already knew – purple martins are extremely picky about where they nest, and rather limited in how they eat. Here are purple martins at a glance:

FOOD – Purple martins are aerial insectivores. While they eat a wide variety of insects on the wing, they are very susceptible to starvation in just a few days of continuous bad weather. Here on the lake, it’s very easy to have a number of consecutive days of cold wet weather when all the flying insects are grounded. Here’s a list from the website of what they have been known to eat. Unfortunately, mosquitoes seem to be an “urban legend” –

"…dragonflies, damselflies, flies, midges, mayflies, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, June bugs, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, cicadas, bees, wasps, flying ants, and ballooning spiders. Martins are not, however, prodigious consumers of mosquitoes as is so often claimed by companies that manufacture martin housing. An intensive 7-year diet study conducted at PMCA headquarters in Edinboro, PA, failed to find a single mosquito among the 500 diet samples collected from parent martins bringing beakfuls of insects to their young. The samples were collected from martins during all hours of the day, all season long, and in numerous habitats, including mosquito-infested ones. Purple Martins and freshwater mosquitoes rarely ever cross paths. Martins are daytime feeders, and feed high in the sky; mosquitoes, on the other hand, stay low in damp places during daylight hours, or only come out at night. Since Purple Martins feed only on flying insects, they are extremely vulnerable to starvation during extended periods of cool and/or rainy weather."

NESTS – when it comes to where they live, martins seems to be even more limited; they’re very picky.
· Location (very specific restrictions as to the placement of nest condos!). See website if you're interested.
· House must be white, or very light-colored (but colored trim is okay)
· They will abandon an established site it is significantly altered. If you house is getting old and needs replacing, put up a new one nearby until they are used to it, and some are occupying it, then take the old one down.
· Martins are prey for just about many birds and land critters. All houses should have a baffle on the pole to prevent squirrels, raccoons etc from climbing up.
· “Landlords may need to lower housing daily to evict nest-site competitors, or to check on martin nestlings. Systems that telescope up and down, or raise and lower with a pulley and winch, are the most practical. Nest checks will not cause martins to abandon their nests or their colony site” – but any sparrows moving into the adjacent units will!
· There’s a huge paragraph at the website on how to deal with nest site competitors. It sounds like a lot of work and monitoring. A telescoping or pulley system would be essential. So would not having a full time job or a family!! I’ve come to the conclusion that nice as martins may be, I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a “landlord.” I might be tempted to hang up a hollow gourd or two (painted white, of course!) but the question remains – would I have the nerve to evict any other birds who moved in that weren’t martins? Starlings or sparrows, maybe, but what about tree swallows or a flycatcher? Sigh. I think I’ll leave the purple martins to their own devices; they seem to have managed all this time on their own.


Martin photo from Wikimedia commons

OLD ABANDONED HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE LAKE

This martin house is on my next-door neighbors' property. They live in Ohio, and usually come up several times over the summer. I'm always glad to see them and enjoy their company, but I think they are both up in their 80s now, and they sometimes talk of selling the place, because the trip is getting to be a hassle. Some of the upkeep is harder, too. My lawn guy also cuts their grass, and I pick up the odd branch that falls, but I doubt the martin house has been cleared and cleaned in a long time; perhaps never. Every summer I see birds check it out, some with twigs in their beaks, and some appear to be staying there, but I have never seen any babies launched. Yesterday, even with all the snow and cold we still have, I saw a starling and a sparrow or two fly up and poke their heads into some of the openings, and even try to squeeze in, without much success. I think I will ask my neighbors next time they visit how they used to clean it. Looks to me like an extension ladder would be needed, and a couple of strong friends to hold it steady - it's right on the edge of the breakwall, and a tumble onto the rocks below wouldn't be fun!

I've been reading up on purple martins, and though I see them catching insects over the water, they seem to be very particular about their nesting sites, and so I wonder if sparrow and starlings would be all that move in if the house were to be cleaned. A house on a telescoping pole is what's recommend for easy access, but this old model doesn't have one of those. Perhaps it's doomed to be a spooky old neighborhood relic that young birds challenge each other to go and perch on for a few seconds if they dare.