Please, no repeat of 2007

[Ginny Pres]

Four of our Purple Martins came in yesterday , about a week earlier than normal. We've got some cold nights predicted in the next week. I sure hope we don't have a repeat of what happened in 2007 in the Kansas City area (a week of cold topped off with 3-4" of snow in mid-April). We lost too many birds that year.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Ginny, keep the birds alive with supplemental feeding. It works to keep them alive. Have you heard of it, & have you tried it? It helps tremendously for some people that know about it and actually do it.

Congrats on the ones that came in, hope you have a good year

[Ginny Pres]

I don't know if anyone in this area even has the crickets that I understand are good to use. I probably need to see if I can find some, or order them.

[Matt F.]

Hi Ginny,

If you want to order some in advance, (which is cheaper), you can have them shipped to you.
Here is a place where you can order them, AND, donate to the PMCA at the same time:
http://purplemartin.org/links/reptilefood.htm

Of course sometimes, the bad weather sneaks up on us, not giving us ample time to order, and wait.

In those cases, most large pet stores (especially the larger chains) carry crickets. This route will be a bit more expensive, but well worth it to be able to quickly get some emergency "Martin chow".

[Ginny Pres]

I didn't think about trying a pet store. We have PetCo and PetSmart here. I'll see if they have them if needed. I'm probably already too late to order and get them shipped in. It may not even get as cold as they're forecasting, either.

Thanks.

[Guest]

Does your local bait shop (if you have a local bait shop) not carry crickets?

I know that the sparrows in my area love to find an unattended fisherman's cricket bucket at the boat ramps. Seems like they would be sufficient for the martins, too.

[kimball911]

I order all my bugs from reptile food and they will ship next day or day after. It's suppose to get cold starting Thurs so you would have time. I got a fresh batch of crickets and mealworms last week and they are ready.

[The Olsons]

Ginny,

We all do not want the bad weather to happen, but please be prepared. I agree with everyone here who gave you great advice. Be proactive and order some crickets and maybe some meal worms, but definitely some crickets. I also use the reptile food.com place for years now and I have the crickets overnighted so they are in good shape. If the martins are hungry they will take your food and survive....if you need help how to feed your martins we are all here for you!!!!!!!!!!!

Astrid

[Ginny Pres]

I found out that my local PetSmart has live small and large crickets and freeze dried (I think) crickets and they also have standard and large mealworms, so I've got easy access to food if needed. (Actually, looks like it will be more of a when needed.) Don't know if they'll go for this food yet, or not. I assume they would prefer the large live crickets and the standard mealworms?

What's even more worrisome, the temps are going to be cold for several days starting tomorrow. One forecast has Saturday night down to 22, with other nights in the lower 30s through next Tuesday (and daytime highs only in lower 40s through Monday.) Saturday will only be 35! Can they even live through such temperatures?

As of yesterday, I had 5 birds (gained 1 from Sunday). Don't know if any more came in today or not. Sure hope they say south a little longer!

I know some people "flick" the crickets up to the birds, and I also think I read a couple of years ago about putting them right in the nest. Guess I wonder how to keep the crickets from escaping if the bird doesn't get them them right away.

[The Olsons]

Ginny,

You could buy crickets and put them with the container they come with into the freezer. They will fall asleep.....then you can pack them in freezer bags and thaw them out as needed. I usually fill a little paper bowl with water and thaw them out in the microwave on very low. You do not want to "cook" them.

A martin needs usually around 40 crickets a day or twice as many meal worms. I personally think (dead) crickets are easier to toss than meal worms.

With your weather forecast I would certainly prepare and have crickets available and maybe you can put some hand warmers in the nests depending on how much nesting material you have in there. There are several landlords that use hand warmers and they get the 24 hour ones and then replace them.

Best wishes for you and your martins with this bad weather spell!!!

Astrid

[Ginny Pres]

Hadn't thought of hand warmers, though I've heard of such things. Guess these are a WalMart item???

Do the Martins eat dead crickets OK? I thought they preferred live bugs. After freezing crickets, they are actually alive when they thaw???

Think it might work to put the crickets in a couple of the nest boxes so they don't have to chase them so much? I assume a "chilled" cricket would still move around enough to attract the birds but not be able to escape?

[Matt@atx]

Hi Ginny,

I ordered large meal worms from reptilefoods the day Matt F. told me about it and it got to me the next day by overnight Fed Ex alive and kicking so you can get them fast in a flip on 24 hours and they would be much cheaper that way.
a pack of 1000 large meal worms is cheap but shipping is up there.
I have yet to get them to eat the meal worms yet but I am thinking about trying a tray attached to the racks and we are going to try cricketts too.
It has been rainy and cold last couple of days here in the Austin area so I am worried about them but our weather here is nothing like what you are describing is about to come to you.
Good luck and feed them if you can.

~Matt

[The Olsons]

I have heard landlords purchasing the hand warmers at Walmart.

As far as the crickets go....once they are frozen they are dead. The protein is still in the cricket and that is what the martins need. You could of course buy crickets and just "chill" them a little so they do not move around so much. I do know how long it would take for them to get a little lethargic.

Martins do feed on flying insects only, but when weather conditions are bad and no bugs are flying it does not take more than 2-3 days for the martins to get weak. That is where some landlords do supplemental/emergency feeding and if the martins are hungry they will take the crickets and or meal worms. The average amount of food a martin needs a day would equal 40 crickets or twice as many meal worms. Many landlords fling the crickets with a plastic spoon, others put them in a feeding tray or in the cavities. I wrote a post "best feeding tray ever" because we could not do much with a feeding tray or flinging because of sea gulls and ended up putting crickets on the boat. I have some pictures included in that post where you can see the martins chowing down. A sign that they are not doing very well is when the wings get droopy.....you can see some of the martins in my pictures had droopy wings already. They were martins that were migrating through our backyard and really needed some help.

Astrid

[The Olsons]

Matt,

I also order my crickets and meal worms from Reptilefood....I am glad to hear that you are prepared and working on feeding your martins. It sometimes take patience, but when they are really hungry they will eat. I think it is a good idea to put a feeding tray up on or near your housing. Once you have done that you maybe can fling a few crickets near that feeding tray so when they go after the food they catch on to the tray. It has worked for many of us landlords that way....one of our hungry martins started to use our boat as a "feeding tray" when tossed crickets landed on the boat....and then the others followed. Please read my post "best feeding tray ever" it shows you how quick hungry martins catch on and has some pictures showing the martins eating crickets of the boat.

Best wishes for you and your martins

Astrid

[Matt@atx]

Thank you Astrid for the advice and I will try that....(flicking to the tray
to see if I can get them to eat from the tray) and I will check out your post too.
Thanks for letting me know about it.
Stuff like that helps us beginners out so much. thats great and I miss it a lot unless someone tells me about it. Thanks for feeding not only your Martins but others as well on their trip up north.
I am sure other people have benefited when their martins came back with full stomachs as well as many birds that have survived because of your feedings.

~Matt

[The Olsons]

Matt,

Thank you for your kind words.... We have a yard full of migrating birds today; they came in last night and I sure hope they stay for a couple of days until the bad weather in the different northern areas has passed. If not, then I hope they will survive because someone will feed them on their journey....

We all have been beginners as martin landlords and learn from each other, so please do not ever hesitate to post your questions.

Astrid

[Guest]

Also try bait stores around lakes,crickets are used to catch Pirch and BlueGill.

[Ginny Pres]

I guess what I think are crickets are quite different than what will come from the pet store (or a bait shop)??? I'm expecting to see the little black bugs that try to invade our basement and garage every summer, but I looked at Astrid's post "Best Feeding Tray Ever," and I see they are brown, and shaped quite differently! Or, are these a more southern variety whereas we in the midwest have the black ones with longer legs? These brown crickets don't look like they would be as "hoppy" as the ones I'm used to seeing.

I thought about attaching a tray I have that I put egg shells in when we get into the nesting season and putting the worms in it, but if we get the precipitation they're forecasting, it will get filled quickly. Still thinking putting food in the nest might be better.

Ginny

[The Olsons]

Ginny,

I know these crickets look different than the ones we find in our garages... When I order my crickets they come in a box with a little mesh area so they can breath, and I put the entire box in the freezer. The crickets never get out and cannot crawl anywhere...

As far as the feeder tray goes, I would certainly use the one you usually have the egg shells in and maybe put a little hole right at the edges so no martin get their foot caught, so the rain can drain out. I did that in 2007 when we had over 300 migrating birds in our yard and it was chilly, windy and pouring down rain. At that time I could put trays right next to the gourds, because the sea gulls obviously did not like to fly in the rain and did not pose a problem. I did not have any problem with the crickets getting drenched or the tray overflowing.

Astrid

[Ginny Pres]

Well, think we've made it through the cold snap with all birds alive. (Ended up being up to six birds by Friday evening. Wish they'd just park down south a little longer!) Picked up some crickets at PetSmart on the way home Friday evening, and went out at 5:30 with high hopes of feeding some to the birds. (All day Friday had been windy, cloudy and cooler than needed for bugs to be flying, so assumed they'd be hungry.)

My feeding efforts did not go well. Even the largest crickets PetSmart had were nowhere near the size of those in Astrid's photos, so I guess mail order is probably the best way to go. I had four birds flying, but I couldn't seem to get the crickets high enough for them to see and go for. Thought about mounting my eggshell tray, but these little bugs were still pretty jumpy, so figured they'd probably bail out of it, so decided to put some in the "entry" part of the nests the birds seem to be using most. (Have a 12-room house converted to 6 nests, so they have an entry area and an inner area. Entry holes are starling-excluder type, so figured the crickets would have to work at finding the way out, and the cold temp would also slow them down eventually.)

Upon dropping the house to do this, checked all rooms and found two birds already too weak to be interested in flying, but still alive. (That's when I realized I had 6 instead of 5.) We decided to take these two in for the night so they could warm up, and see if they would eat anything. Put them in our large dog kennel. Got the house raised (with some crickets in it), and the other 4 birds ultimately went in for the night. Upon trying to feed the two we brought in, we pulled a leg off of a few crickets, hopefully leaving them moving (but not all over the basement), and put them in the kennel with the two birds. Between being weak (one in particular), mad at being confined, and I guess not being hungry enough, they did not go for the crickets, even thought the taking would be easy.

Saturday was brutal, with the temperature not getting past 34. The rain started around 10:00 AM, and froze on trees and suspended areas before turning to sleet/snow in the early afternoon. This went on until sometime after 7:00 PM. We ended up with about 5" of wet, blowing snow on top of the ice. The two birds we'd brought in were pretty perky by morning, but we decided it would be no justice to put them back out in the cold, with very little food in them, so we kept them in. Put some fresh crickets in with them, but if they ate any, it was only a few. The four left outside were flying some in the morning, and we dropped the house to add some fresh crickets. Looked like a few we gave them the night before might have been eaten, but not all of them. I watched as these 4 birds went into the house, and prayed that all would be well with them.

In the mid afternoon, when the snow was at its worst, one male had come out and was sitting outside, up against the house. We have dividers on the outside to help keep each set of babies in their proper nests, and he was right up against one of them as well, blocking some of the snow from being right on top of him. Come about 5:00 PM, we wondered if he was more-or-less "frozen" there, but when we walked out, he flew around, and ultimately went in a hole when he came back. We got the 4-wheel drive out and went to dinner.

When we returned, we noticed the blowing snow was almost completely covering one hole that I saw two birds go into earlier. Having not seen 3 of the 4 birds remaining outside since late morning, we wondered how they would make it through a wet, windy night that was going to get into the lower 20's, also knowing how little food they'd had for 2 days. We decided to drop the house, hoping none flew, to check them. None flew. We found two in one nest, and one each in two other nests. Ultimately, we decided to bring all of them in so they could get dry and be warm. Two were already very weak. We disabled the crickets we had left and put them in the kennel. I think a few were eaten, but not all.

The sun came out brightly Sunday morning, though the temps didn't come up very quickly. By noon, it was about 38, but felt much warmer due to the sun and low wind. We cleaned the snow and ice off of the Martin house and raised it back up. The hole that was nearly covered with snow was still covered, and the ice had it quite solid. (This hole was on the northwest corner of the house.) I don't think the birds could have gotten out when they wanted to until even later in the day after more melting.

We brought the kennel out and set it on a chair. All six birds FLEW out and started circling overhead. Ultimately, all six came in to roost and check the nests (over and over). We have 4 of our 8 gourds up, and they had to explore each of them as well. (The sparrows are also very interested, so the battle is on. We put the sparrow catcher out to see if we can entice any sparrows to get caught. When the rest of our Martins come in, we'll be helping each other discourage and eliminate the sparrows. I've had no sparrows successful in nesting in Martin homes for several years.) The afternoon temp hit around 51, so I don't know what they found to eat, but they were still acting normal in the evening. Last night only got down to around 40, and today is supposed to be over 60. They should be able to replenish their energy level before another cool day tomorrow. Then, Wednesday is supposed to be nicer. Hopefully we'll have no more days like we've just had. These birds came in over a week early, but I'm now into the time that we'll be seeing many more come in.

I don't know if it was right or wrong to take these birds inside, but under the circumstances, I believe helping them conserve their energy by being warm and dry may have saved them. I truly feel we would have lost at least 4 of the 6 if they'd been outside through the last cold night, especially, and perhaps none would have made it. I guess they weren't hungry enough (or didn't think they were), to eat my crickets, but at least they didn't spend their last bit of strength trying to stay warm.

I had checked into hand warmers, but the ones I found were only designed to last 6 hours, and that's if you keep them in your pockets, and I guess put your hands in your pockets from time to time. Since the coldest part of night is actually in the early morning hours, I couldn't see that these would do much good. If I'd put them in the nests at 7-8 PM, they'd be totally cold by the middle of the night when the heat is needed the most.

Sorry about the length of this post. This has been quite a traumatic weekend, which ultimately ended OK, but I don't want another like it for a LONG time (or ever). Thanks everyone for the support.

Ginny