Akron Beacon Journal, OH – 20 hours ago
Portage Lakes group hangs up homes for insect eaters
By John Higgins
Beacon Journal staff writer
COVENTRY TWP. – Until Sunday afternoon, Alyce Duncan had never flung scrambled eggs catapult-style at purple martins in mid-flight with a black plastic spoon.
Duncan’s niece, Heidi Pitts and her husband, Dennis, belong to the Portage Lakes Purple Martin Association, which has a sanctuary for the birds near the State Mill Road boat launch in Portage Lakes.
They were among about a dozen who came out Sunday to witness what was described in the association’s newsletter as “the greatest spectacle in bird watching.”
Shortly after 2 p.m., the assembled feeders loaded black bendable spoons with scrambled (chicken) egg bits fortified with powdered egg shell (for calcium).
The association, which has about 30 members, has erected seven poles near the boat launch with a dozen white gourd-shaped bird houses on each pole modified to ward off predators, such as hawks and owls.
Purple martins weigh about 2 ounces and are the largest member of the North American swallow family, according to the Purple Martin Conservation Association.
The white-breasted females and the dark purple-breasted mature males floated like kites on the strong breeze off the lake in anticipation of the feeding frenzy.
Their human feeders bent back their spoons, aimed for the sky near the nesting poles and launched the eggs.
Martins swooped and dived, snatching many, but not all of the snacks in mid-flight. The rest rained down on the flingers.
“There’s eggs everywhere,” Duncan said, laughing. “I had scrambled eggs for breakfast. I could have saved some.”
She felt some errant egg bits thump her head.
“They’re going to dive down and get in my hair. That’s where the eggs are,” she said.
After the feeding, Larry R. Hunter, president of the Portage Lakes Purple Martin Association, lowered the gourd-shaped bird houses on one of the poles to check for invader sparrow nests and to take a peek at the baby martins nesting inside.
The plastic bird houses — which the privately funded association purchases and modifies — are arranged on a structure like a candelabra that can be raised and lowered. The association has 27 poles in the Portage Lakes area and 278 houses for martins.
Volunteers feed the birds eggs and eggshells regularly as soon as the first scout shows up sometime in April until the birds head to South America for the winter.
The association was founded in 2000 as a project with the Portage Lakes Advisory Council to boost the returning population of the insect-gobbling martins. It started with one nesting pair that year, which had five babies, known as fledglings.
Last year, 90 pairs produced 363 fledglings; this year, 103 pairs are expected to fledge 450 babies. Hunter said the group is on track to have 1,000 fledglings in Portage Lakes in 2014.
Typically, about half of purple martins return to the nests they made the previous year, but the return rate is much higher in Portage Lakes, Hunter said.
This year, 92 percent of the males and 66 percent of the females returned. Hunter suspects the rich egg diet has something to do with that.
“The reason is all this calcium they get,” Hunter said. “They’re in super shape when they leave here.”
