CCDS Purple Martin

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Our campus hatchlings are growing and maturing!

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Purple Martin nesting is in full swing. Parents are sitting on eggs and hatchlings are waiting to be fed.

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

I couldn’t help but smile as I approached the @CountryDay purple martin pole. Not only did the gourds survive last weeks storm unscathed, the birds arrived! What beautiful music!

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Can’t wait to fly! One hatchling is ready to fledge while others are already flying yet still spending time at “home”. @CCDSHirsch @CCDSEnvCouncil

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Hatch day! Students observe a purple martin that hatched this morning and then discuss difference between altricial and precocious birds. #ccdslearning @CCDSHirsch @natur_xperience

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

What a surprise! Purple Martins are nesting. @CCDSHirsch @natur_xperience #ccdslearning

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Today’s the day. March 27 is arrival day for the first purple martin of our campus colony. He seemed pretty proud perched on the new system set up by CCDX students! #CCDX2019 @CCDSHirsch

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Purple martins are wintering in South America. They are missing a beautiful sunrise at their nesting colony on campus. @CCDSEnvCouncil

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

2018 Nesting Season Update sign install on purple martin sign. Looking forward to another great season in 2019!

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

You know it is a good year when purple martins feed dragonflies to their young. This was a great year! 118 eggs laid, 111 hatched, 107 fledged (old enough to fly from nest on its own). That’s a 94% hatching success and 91% fledging success. Passing marks on any campus!@LuscaDan

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Purple martins are known for keeping a tidy nest. In this clip watch a parent feed young and then pick up and swallow droppings. That is one way to clean house, eh?
#ccdslearning #ccdsgreen

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

@CountryDay purple martin hatchlings react to hearing adult birds, “Is one of them coming to feed us?!’”

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Father’s Day nest check: 110 hatchlings and 11 eggs. Our @CountryDay colony is going strong! #ccdslearning #ccdsgreen

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Sometimes it is hard not to anthropomorphize. This dad attends to his young and then look outside as if to say,”Is your mother home yet?”

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Hatchlings gathered at the door saying, “Feed me!” Maybe we name them all Audrey II.

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Feeding time for older hatchlings.

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

Feeding time for young hatchlings.

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

In a nest of 5 eggs, 1 hatched this morning. Check out this clip of the mother feeding her young while the father appears to defend the entrance. The mother then organizes the eggs and hatchling so she can warm them with her brood patch.

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

@COMPUDUCATION installed a second nest cam today. This nesting pair seems to know there is something new in their home.

[CCDS Purple Martin @ccdspurplmartin]

90 hatchlings in our campus colony and 27 eggs. Next week we will increase the purple martin population by over a hundred!