ONTARIO PURPLE MARTIN ASSOCIATION OR AUGUST, Message from Paul:

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1 ONTARIO PURPLE MARTIN ASSOCIATION OR AUGUST, 2016 Message from Paul: As our purple martin season wraps up, we ve come a long way since the early days of April when the martins began to arrive. It looked like it was going to be a very disappointing year as many people reported higher than normal mortality rates because of the cold and lack of insects. Many members made a valiant effort to save the early arrivals by feeding crickets, mealworms and eggs. They reported a great deal of success and some had no martin deaths at all in their colonies. This speaks volumes for feeding the martins when conditions are not good for their survival. However, once we got through that early rough patch things greatly improved so much so that many members reported higher numbers this year than last. We will not know for sure until the final numbers are tallied but it does look good from reports given at the May and June meetings. Just a reminder, please make an effort to fill out the Nature Canada form that John handed out in April. They are making an attempt to find out how the martins are doing and it is only through having yearly statistics that this can be done. If you need a copy of the survey, it can be found at our website (see text box above). We will also have copies at the Hawk Festival and at the September meeting which you will be able to fill out and hand back to John. We will again be participating at the Hawk Festival at Holiday Beach in September. The dates are September 10 th- 11 th and 17 th -18 th. We will have 3-hour shifts (9-12 and 12-3) each of these days. If you would like to help out let me know and I will mark you down for one of the time slots. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to promote our club to interested people who attend this event. In years past, we have picked up new members who want to set up colonies and learn more about the Purple Martin. The club is very fortunate to be associated with Community in Blooms and the Town of Essex. Martin housing was set up at the Colchester Harbour and the OPMA agreed to monitor it. A dedication was held on June 15 th at the site with a number of people from the town and the Community in Blooms attending. John Balga, Al Hamill, Dennis Shady, Tim O Hagan and I represented the club at the dedication ceremony. The Harrow News and the Essex Free Press covered the event and put articles about the site and our club in their papers the following week. 1

2 I would like to thank Tim and John for all the work they did in bringing this project to completion. The colony had 4 pair and 19 young. This is really impressive because the housing was set up in early May and it was not long before Martins began to arrive. We have had two member hosts meetings this year. The first was at Al & Anne Hamill s and the second was at Henry & Elaine Wolting s. I would like to thank them for providing a meeting place for our association. Without member hosts, we would need to find and possibly pay for a place to hold our meetings. Next year we again will be looking for some members to host our May and June meetings. The June 25 th meeting was also our annual BBQ and potluck. Henry & Elaine were wonderful hosts who provided a very comfortable and relaxed setting for all who attended. I can say without a doubt that the food was great and everyone was able to enjoy the company of other club members. We hope to do it again next year and I would strongly urge members to attend to take enjoy the friendship that exists among members of our club. The Holiday Beach site continues to expand. There is some very nice signage at the site which will educate visitors about purple martins. This year John reported that there is approximately 38 pair with over 130 nestlings. John was able to band a large number of young birds at the site and hopefully this will keep track of them in the future. I would like to thank John for all the work he has done in making this such a successful site. Richard & Susan Carr continue their work on Walpole Island. It has been through their efforts that the Martin has been reintroduced to housing on the island. Richard not only monitors all the housing but bands many of the young. He then will recapture them many of them next year to check the bands to find out if these are returning birds or new birds from other colonies. Richard was also involved with geo-locators and over the past two years has been able to retrieve many of them. He has received data on those and it is quite interesting to see the route taken by these Martins as they migrate to and from the Amazon rain forest. Thank you Richard & Susan for all your work in preserving the presence of the Martin on Walpole Island. The club continues to be strong. Our finances are in good shape. We added three new board members this year: Don Bissonette, Audrey Festeryga, and Marianne Knapp. Al Hamill has taken over as treasurer and Fern Bellavance has volunteered to maintain the lending library. Thank you all for stepping forward to fill these positions. As long as we have people who are interested in the well-being of the Martin and who want to share their experiences with other club members, we will be around for many more years. The beneficiary of our club is the Martin and hopefully through our efforts it will have continued success in the future. Thanks to all who join our association and take the time each year to come to our meetings. Paul Hamel, Chairperson 2

3 Welcome to our new and returning members! Orville and Aase Houser, Wheatley Mari Biehn, Leamington Cecile Lesperance, Belle River Shirley & Jeff Dufour F. Michael Hughes Frank Catanzaro, Harrow Rose-Marie Symes, Leamington Fern Bellavance, Harrow Wes & Nancy Ford, Harrow Warren & Gail Ritchie Al Morrison Lyle Hall, Essex Saturday October 1, 2016 will be our final meeting of the year (9:00 am) at Orchard View Golf Course, Ruthven. Please remember to bring your colony results!!!! The BBQ and Potluck meeting at home of Henry & Elaine Wolting June 25 3

4 It is always enjoyable to visit a different purple martin site, and Elaine & Henry have a wonderful one. Along with their impressive martin housing, they have a great entertainment room, several ponds, and lots of open space surrounding them. Their round house was very interesting to see. 4

5 This pond was just off the building above, which is where our delicious potluck lunch was served. Thank you to our hosts Henry & Elaine, and to all who contributed to the meal! 5

6 Andy Troyer s Martin Lands in Essex, Ontario.. by John Balga Sometimes we get lucky and are able to see a purple martin with a band on their leg at our colony. This is the second year that I host martins at my home in Essex. Last year saw two pair of subadult martins arrive only to make a nest and then leave. This was a very disappointing year for me as my hopes for hosting a pair were dashed. It reminded me of the twenty year wait I encountered at our first home in the county before hosting my first pair of martins on Irwin Avenue in Essex. But 2016 was to be a different year as a pair of adults arrived to claim a Troyer horizontal gourd followed by four other pair who settled in a Lonestar Alamo house, two excluder gourds and another in a Troyer Horizontal in May. The first pair settled in quite nicely laying six eggs and this is the pair that I noticed which had the female with a reddish band on one leg and a silver band on the other. I thought for sure that this may be one of the Walpole Island birds that had a red band that Richard Carr had banded in 2015 or even still one that I had red banded years before in the area making her a 5-7 year old. A spotting scope and binoculars were still not enough to give me the numbers that were required to identify the band and since she was setting up house, it would be at least 5-6 weeks before she would have young to feed, making it an appropriate time to capture her. Sometimes martins will abandon their nest if they are captured so it is always good to wait until their young have hatched. Twice she evaded capture by removing the plug that was used to plug the horizontal gourd so it was imperative that the plug had to be secured and removed at or before dawn arrived. On June 27, I was successful and was able to report the following: Federal Band: Red/purple Auxillary Band: PA S460 on the ASY Female. I posted the information on the PMCA Facebook page and received the following information: "John Balga, this is a bird the PMCA banded at the Troyer colony on 7/9/13 as a nestling in a T14. We call that band color purple, of course." This was remarkable news in that her banding birthday was just days away and there was good news to be shared about her journey and stay in Essex. Could she have been recaptured in PA during the previous two years as well? The follow-up information was then sent to the banding lab for further verification. It turned out that John Tautin or one of his associates did band her as indicated. The Banding lab sent me a letter of thanks and a certificate of appreciation. She had not been recaptured so we only had one episode of her colony life. A quick call was made to Adam Troyer in PA which caused a stir of excitement as they had not yet received any martin reports from southern Ontario of Troyer site banded martins. Adam was excited to share the news with his Father Andy. Both Adam and Andy requested copies of the banding certificate for their own personal records. 6

7 The rest of her life as a three year old remains a mystery as no one knows for certain where she had been the previous two years. For sure we will be looking for her in the Spring of 2017 along with her banded six youngsters. Keep looking for those banded martins - they may have a story to tell! John Balga Contact any of the members below with questions and concerns: Board Members: Paul Hamel kp_hamel@live.ca... Chairperson Lyle Papps Vice-Chair, Natural gourds Al Hamill alhamill70@gmail.com... Treasurer, Finances Marianne Dyck rudyandmarianne@gmail.com.. Secretary, member records Dennis Shady dennisshady@yahoo.ca... New member advisor Don Bisonnette Advisor Richard Carr wipmp@gmail.com... Walpole Island, Banding, Geo-Locators Audrey Festeryga Advisor Marianne Knapp Advisor Mary Wilson helenmwilson@yahoo.com... Advisor Volunteers: John Balga martinman@hotmail.com... Website Fern Bellavance Lending Library Nancy Robson nancyrrobson@gmail.com... Media Mary Wilson helenmwilson@yahoo.com... Newsletters, Cricket orders Resources: Remember to check out our wonderful website maintained and provided by John Balga, our website manager. or The Feed Store in Harrow now carries many purple martin products. They are located at 2564 County Road 20 East, in Harrow, and can be contacted at The Purple Martin Conservation Association (PMCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of Purple Martins through scientific research, state of the art management techniques, and public education. The PMCA forum does not require sign-up, is totally free, and is a wealth of information from landlords all across N.A. 7