HE'S ALIVE! - UPDATE 2 WITH PICS - no feathers on wings

[FlaSpartan]

Two mornings in a row now, we've found a fledgling on the ground that can't fly and put him back in his nest. This morning I realized that his wings look skeleton-like but his head & body look normal. He's about 28-29 days old and his only remaining nest mate has successfully fledged. He's still being fed by a parent, but it looks like he may never be able to fly. I can only guess that this may be the result of three straight days of heavy rains that began when he was only a few days old and my cricket flinging was unsuccessful. We did lose two young after the rain, but the 50+ others made it through with the great supply of food that followed over our lake.
The next time he jumps and falls to the ground, I'm afraid he'll be taken by the neighbor's cat or a hawk. Is there anything I can do for him?????
UPDATE:
The next morning there was so sign of the fledgling in or around the gourd. So we resigned ourselves to the possibility that he was taken by something on his third fledging attempt. Although his wing feathers seemed to be filling in more every day, he was in no condition to get very far or very high.
Late that afternoon we took a ride in our paddle boat and heard a young martin calling from beneath a dock several lots down from ours. Incredibly, it was our fledgling! How the heck did he get there, swim? We tried to reach him from our boat but couldn't, even though he made no attempt to move away from us. So my brave husband jumped into the lake (inspite of the snakes & alligators!) and got him. Back home we tried to feed him crickets from our emergency stash, but he wouldn't take any. So we got his gourd down from the rack and put him and his gourd into a racoon trap we had, stocked the gourd with crickets and let him spend the night on our screened in porch.
The next morning we checked on him. He appeared to have spent the night outside the gourd and it didn't look like the crickets had been taken. So we put him in his gourd and hoisted him back up the rack.
I headed for work and just as my husband was about to leave, he saw the fledgling's father pull him out of the gourd. This time he didn't hit the ground first, but took off flying relatively low across the lake until he was out of sight.
I can only hope that we bought him some time and his parent take care of him until he can fly with all the others. We've probably seen the last of him, but who knows? Certainly stranger things have happened in our relationship with this tough little guy!
UPDATE 2:
This morning, 4 days after the last "release", our fledgling was back sitting right where we found him that first morning. Once again he let me approach him without moving, just kept those beautiful eyes on me while I took pictures. I've attached Before & After pics of his development during that time. What a difference a few days makes! Later I saw him flying with the other larger fledglings and hanging out near his gourd with his ASY "dad" (the SY female's been missing for several weeks). He must have been watching over "our" baby this past week while his feathers grew in. In honor of Father's Day, I'd like to nominate him for PM Father of the Year! John & I feel GREAT to have helped!
Happy Father's Day to all you Fathers out there!

[Louise Chambers]

Nancy,

Probably nothing except return him to the nest each time. That is too bad about its wings not developing feathers properly. One year at PMCA we had a nestling that had abnormal feathers - they were halfcircles instead of straight, and would come in, grow, fall out, and then it grew more - also abnormal feathers. Its nestmates all fledged but this little guy did not make it. Maybe with more time your bird will grow in its wing feathers.

Louise

[~Patrick~]

I believe your young martin has a genetic defect. If so, he'll never grow in wing feathers and will never be able to fly. That's too bad but it's all part of the natural world. Only the strong survive.

Patrick

[FlaSpartan]

Check out my update above.

[Louise Chambers]

Nancy,

What an amazing experience, and kudos to you and John for working so hard to help that martin, even though the odds for a happy outcome were not good. If it flew, and had a parent with it or watching it, it has a chance, and it would not have had that chance without the food and time you provided. Amazing birds, aren't they

Louise

[FlaSpartan]

Louise - They sure are amazing. Both John & I think it was fate that we found him under our neighbor's dock that afternoon and regardless of the outcome, we wouldn't have traded that bonding experience for anything. We just melted when we looked into his beautiful eyes!
We added a gourd rack this year to our existing Trio & Trendsetter 12's and our fledgling count is up over 50% from 2008. Looking forward to an even better 2010. Thanks for all your advice!
Nancy

[Matt F.]

Nancy,

What an amazing experience, and kudos to you and John for working so hard to help that martin, even though the odds for a happy outcome were not good. If it flew, and had a parent with it or watching it, it has a chance, and it would not have had that chance without the food and time you provided. Amazing birds, aren't they

Louise

I'll second that Louise!

Nancy, great work! That little one would have had no chance, without you and your husband going above and beyond like you did.

[FlaSpartan]

Thanks for your kind words. I hope you enjoy the pictures I added to show how well he's done.

[The Olsons]

Nancy,

Great job you have done taking care of the little fledgling I sure wish him the best of luck!!!!

Astrid