Dead Nestlings by the Handfuls

[Louise Chambers]

And we need to remember we are fortunate, as devastating as the loss of so many young martins is, we still have the adult and subadult birds. When Hurricane Agnes hit PA in the early 70s it rained every day for 3 weeks. Not only did all the nestlings die, many or most of the adult martins did too. Some areas do not have martins to this day.

We might see some renesting, there is still time for that. And losses varied, some landlords lost most young, some lost 1/2 or 1/4 - we lost 1/3 of our eggs and young here earlier in the season due to drought. We supplied about 2000 crickets a day which helped, but not all the martins used that resource. I know some landlords fed through this bad weather, others were caught by surprise, not realizing the effects until it was too late.

Populations can rebuild quickly, and we all need to help them do that next year.

Louise

[Guest]

Louise,

You raise a very important point about renesting! Under normal conditions it does not appear martins attempt to renest (unlike our bluebirds that raise three clutches of young per season). However, I have seen our tree swallows renest if predators destroyed their earlier nest, so we know that swallows will renest under the right conditions. Perhaps for many this summer represents the right conditions and I would not be surprised to see reports of this begin to trickle in soon.

On the outside chance that some martins will attempt to renest keep housing cleaned and open. I think it might be good to also put some clean and dry pine straw of other nesting material in the housing to encourage the birds.

Good luck everyone!

Jeff

[Bob Buskas]

Well said Jeff.......I could not agree with you more.

[Guest]

Hello Bob.

How are Canadian purple martins fairing with this strange summer? Better than down here I hope!

Jeff

[Bob Buskas]

Hi jeff, I just did a nest check here today. It was cool and raining off and on but managed to get the checks done between showers. Up until the last 10 days it has been drought conditions here so the 3 inches of rain this past while was very welcome. As for the Martins, they are doing very well, our Martin population is at an all time high with many new colonies starting up this spring. I have 105 compartments here and have 90 pair with eggs or young. They are nesting a bit later this year due to the very cold but dry spring weather. This has been one of the weirdest weather patterns I have ever seen.
My nest check today gave me 353 young and 65 eggs but only 36 of those eggs will hatch. This is up from 69 pair last year that fledged 289 young. So far no weather related losses, I have my fingers crossed. But the blow flys are bad again, so it took me all afternoon between the showers to get the nests cleaned up and changed out. I now have 353 happy nestlings going to sleep tonight. I am feeding up about 2 dozen scrambled eggs a day in this cooler weather, I mix in some meal worms with the egg as well. They like to feed it to their nestlings in the mornings and evenings. We will be banding next week for a few days, so tomorrow its off to my Golf Course colony to do nest changes there. I have 48 compartments there as well and they are pretty much full each year. 150 compartments to look after is quit a job, especially with the Blow fly problems. I have tried Sevin and several other things but none of them seem to work. Only nest changes works for me. Hope everyone in the north has better weather ahead.

[Guest]

Bob,

Thanks for the upbeat report on your colonies. I hope they continue to thrive this summer.

While not wanting to minimize the sad events that many martin hosts have endured over the last several weeks, I do think that we have been so focused on the problems that we have been overlooking the fact that there are still many colonies (like Bob's) that are doing well. Hopefully we can begin to put everything in perspective and remember the overall benefit and positive effect that all martin hosts provide.

Hopefully everyone has learned a little more in our collective knowledge of purple martins from these experiences that will help us better understand martins. There is so much still to learn.

Good luck to everyone for the remainder of the season.

Jeff

[Daryl Lindstrom - MN]

RENESTING ATTEMPT?!?!?

I just checked on the Rush Lake Colony and there is a new nest with three eggs in a compartment that had a complete nest failure! It sure is late...

I will be checking all the colonies on Friday. I will report other new nests if any are found.

[Louise Chambers]

Glad to hear it, Daryl. Please keep us informed, we are all rooting for some renesting success for all affected areas. It would be a nice morale booster. We're hearing of possible renesting from some other landlords too.

Louise

[Bob]

Last week I posted that I only had 3 of 42 nests fledge. My losses started with a raccoon, then an owl. Both eggs and nestlings gone. I also had a few nests, in an aluminum house with dead nestlings. Not sure why they died, as I did see the parents feeding them, then the next day they were dead. The cool weather may have played a part in their death. Pole guards have been updated and ordering tunnels for the gourds.

Today I decided to clean up my housing, but to my surprise I had an ASY male and female scolding me as I stared lowering the aluminum housing. I know the male has been around. I just figured he had lost his mate and young, but could not figure out why he chose to stay around. Well today I found out why To my surprise, I found a nest with 3 nestlings about 8 to 9 days old. Their eyes are not open yet. I decided to hold off on the cleaning and once I put the house back up, the parents started feeding.

I am hoping and praying they make it and I can change my total to 4 successful nests.

[Guest]

These reports of re-nesting are great news. Let's hope that mother nature will be kind to the martins for the remainder of the summer!

The re-nesting shows that the martins can be resilient to adverse conditions and rebound. Perhaps this could lead to re-nesting behavior even in good years and help increase martin populations.

Our blue birds typically raise three broods per summer. The blue birds have an advantage in that they don't have to mature and prepare for the long migration martins make. Still, given good housing and ample food, and considering the trend reported here (and on other forums) that martins appear to be nesting a bit earlier each year, it seems natural that we will see more martins raising a second brood.

How cool would it be if re-nesting became a normal occurrence - even after successful first broods? I doubt there would be many complaints from colony hosts.

Jeff

[oneidalaker]

Hello everyone

I had a great start on Oneida Lake, population of nesting pairs was up 20% from 37 to 45. Lost numerous eggs to sparrows that I was able to pick off one by one and now the weather. We just had a record June for rain and it has taken it's toll with my Hatch-year young. Counted about 12 dead nestlings last night and numerous other nests had missing young. Also must have lost one pair as in one nest, all 6 nestlings were dead. Did not see any blowflys but with this weather I suppose that they are next.

Oneidalaker

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

Another update on my neighbors colonies. All is still well at the coloney that I have been taking care of this summer as far as the young are doing, there is a new nest of four eggs and the oldest chicks are a week or so from fledging. There is one failed nest of five eggs that have not been tended to for over a week now. The housing at this site is on wooden poles and today I put predator guards onthem because I found the remains of three adult birds on the ground under the housing. I suspect that a feral cat has learned to get up there and drag out birds from the houses. Not counting the four eggs that are still being sat on there should be 18 martins fledging from my gourds alone.
I finally got to a nest check over at the other neighbor where I have gourds under his housing too and even though some of his housing has a heavy infestation of mites, (which were dusted with seven) all is well there too, although the occupancy rate is not as high in the housing and gourds as over at the other coloney.I should fledge 44 martins out of 16 gourds. No sighn of predation at this site his housing is on metal poles.