Feb 21, 2011   
The past week has been unseasonably warm - getting up in the 70's. We knew that it was just a matter of time before we saw a purple martin. Sure enough - we saw one last night (Feb 20th). A female purple martin joined him this morning. We had planned on putting up one of the wood houses for them (currently just a metal house is up), but we ran out of time this past weekend. So - instead of putting up a house in balmy 70 degree weather, we put it up today - 50 degrees and a cold north wind. The season has started off as usual ... the birds are showing up sooner than we want and we're out working in the cold.

Mar 9, 2011   
Harold put up the remainder of the bird houses. We've blocked the rooms on the north side until the starling problems have been taken care of. We can't see them on the north side of the houses. 62 cavities are available - with 50 rooms open.

Apr 15, 2011   
We had excitement today. The winds were blowing around 50 mph with grass fires west and north of town. Harold and I came home early from work and prepared to evacuate. Luckily the wind shifted slightly to the south and we didn't have to leave. The fire came within 1.5 miles of our house.

Apr 18, 2011   
We have lots of birds so we did our first nest check today. We have eggs!! We have 5 eggs - the first egg was laid on the 16th. Also, there are 28 nests. We found one dead female martin and one dead starling in the T24. Its possible the martin had been attacked by a starling. Harold tried to fire up the video server to get the nest cam on line. It has a drive failure. I think we had this problem last year.

Apr 21, 2011   
Nest check: 34 nests; 10 eggs. Saw our first sub-adult male today. Opened up the remaining cavities.

Apr 30, 2011   
We should have done a nest check before now - they should be done around every 4 days but its been windy. When it gets too windy, the nest material blows out of the houses during a nest check. 44 nests; 29 eggs. We had less than a half inch of rain in April - we should have had closer to 3 inches. The ground is cracked; the grass is yellow and crunchy. Hopefully the martins are able to find enough insects.

May 1, 2011   
Its cold and rainy (a measly 3/10 of an inch). The martins don't look happy. Its supposed to be cold again tomorrow so Harold fed them a couple of eggs. We can tell that the same birds return every year. Harold steps out on the deck and the birds start circling over him.

May 6, 2011   
I don't think the wind is ever going to quit. We went ahead and did a nest check even though it was windier than we would have liked. Its a good thing - we have baby martins!! 56 nests, 37 eggs, 5 young.

May 9, 2011   
I had planned on doing a nest check today, but its 93 degrees with a 20-30mph wind. Its like living in a blow dryer. Its not as bad as yesterday ... 107 degrees on Mother's Day.

May 12, 2011   
We finally got to do a nest check today. We had a couple of windy and/or rainy days. I was so excited that we got some rain ... but then it ended up only being 1/10th of an inch. The martins are starting to kick in with laying egss: 61 nests, 71 eggs; 10 young. We removed one egg that had been pecked by sparrows.

May 15, 2011   
61 nests; 135 eggs; 25 young; Everything looked okay.