Hatching is in full swing at the PMCA colonies. Most of our nests have hatched with the remaining few due to hatch over the next week. We continue our twice weekly nest checks to ensure our martins and their nestlings are doing well. Frequent nest checks allow us to monitor nest parasites, predation and any other issues that might occur for a Purple Martin Landlord.
When the nestlings reach 11 days old we will begin banding. We typically band over 500 nestlings each year so we are approaching a busy time in our field season.
All six eggs in our LIVE NestCam hatched and are doing well. They are 11 days old today and will be banded sometime in the next few days.
For those of you who followed along with our NestCam last year, you will probably remember our Martin Mama “Jolene.” Jolene surprised us all by laying seven eggs last year. We watched as all seven hatched, grew and successfully fledged. We were very excited to see her return this year to our other colony site that is close-by. She has a nest of 6 eggs that have all hatched and are doing well.
Check back soon for updates on our field research and all of our new nestlings.
Mercedes Leofsky
PMCA Field Biologist