Northern Sky's colony report (Alberta)

[Bob Buskas]

Hi folks, well my yard is very quiet in the afternoon now. All but 3 pair
have fledged so I only get to enjoy the Martins in the mornings and evenings
now. I always look forward to watching them bring back the youngsters before
sunset. I have just over 500 birds returning each night right now but soon
they will be gone.
With all the cold snowy weather in May and the cool wet weather in June
and July (totaling 18.6 inches), I am surprised at how well they did this
year. My nesting numbers are down a bit but still OK. Some of the early
arriving ASY's managed to survive 3 separate snow storms, a few did not. I
found 6 dead birds in my yard this spring (3 asy and 3 sy). Even the
Subadults were coming in on a snow storm that dropped 6 inches of snow here
on May 30th.
The May 30th snow storm was the last straw for some of the ASY birds. I
had about 10 pair that had nests built and some even had green leaves in the
nest ready to lay eggs. After the snow they seemed to go back into the
survival mode and forgot about laying eggs for this year. I can hardly blame
them . I also had 11 pair lay eggs that did not hatch, I am sure the weather
stress was responsible for many of those eggs not hatching as well. The
ASY's delayed laying by about 10 to 14 days this year, so the colony fledge
time is much closer together this year. As nature goes, I had good success
with the young SY birds arrived in June and took over some of the abandoned
nests that the ASY's built, and they have now fledged young in them. Many of
the SY's (subadults) fledged 4 young which is very good for their first year
as parents. I still have 3 pair of late nesters that won't fledge until
August 19th, but they will be fine as the rest of the colony is later as
well.
The Blow fly maggots were not as bad this year due to the cooler
weather, so some good comes with the bad. I only had to do a few nest
changes, not like last year, I had to nest change nearly all of them. You
never know with blow flies, they are a year to year thing.
So my final numbers are as follows. 91 pair laid eggs, 80 pair hatched
young, 333 young hatched and 331 will fledge. Averaging 3.63 per nest of
eggs laid that fledged young. Not great numbers but I am happy with that
considering the weather we had.

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Nice results! Congratulations on another sucessful season.

[Carlton]

I enjoyed reading about your year. Thanks for posting your results. Sounds like all in all it was a good year in spite of the weather.

[Bob Buskas]

Hi folks, for you that don't live in Central Alberta, we have been living in
heavy smoke filled skies from the Forest Fires in Britsh Columbia. The fires
are out of control there and the August jet stream that our Humming Birds
and Purple Martins migrate out on are bringing in the smoke. Yesterday the
visibility was less than 1/2 mile. Many or most of the Hummers and Martins
left Alberta just ahead of the smoke. Two or three days ago our Humming bird
feeders were crazy busy, tonight just 2 or 3 left, and I think they are
migrating as well.
My colony has shrunk from 500 + birds ( 200+ adults and 300+ nestlings)
to about 80 or 100 tonight. My last pair fledged just today, so they should
stay around for a week or so. Each evening there is less of them coming back
to roost.
I suspect most have left Alberta to roosts in Saskatchewan or Manitoba.
Hard to tell for sure, but the jet stream is right for migration now. The
Hummers and the Martins leave at the same time so I always watch for what
the hummers are doing at the feeder and that tells me that the Martins are
thinking the same way. If anyone sees a pre migratory flock of Martins this
time of year, please let me know. My yard is way to quiet all of a sudden
but it feels good to know we sent thousands of young hatching year (HY)
Martins south once again. (SMILE)
Thanks, Bob Buskas

[Carlton]

VERY informative, Bob. Thanks. I am glad to hear you had such a successful year and that most of the birds got started on their migration before the smoke hit.

GREAT JOB!

[trank]

Bob, thanks for posting your report. With all the weather extremes you and your martins experienced I would say you had a successful year. I'm sure losses would have been higher without supplemental feeding and the quality housing that you offer.

Tom

[Bob Buskas]

Tonight August 26th, I still have about 20 or so Martins returning to roost in the houses. I suspect they will move on very soon.

[Bob Buskas]

Hi folks, tonight Irene and I lit a camp fire to watch the last few come in
to roost. At 8 :10 only one returned to our site. Last night we had about 20
return. This cooler weather has sent them on their way. The last pair
fledged on August 20th , one week ago. They will be staying in B&B 's on
their way south east into Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
I had about 50 stay at my B&B one night several years ago. I hadn't seen
a Martin for about a week, then all of a sudden one evening in mid August
just ahead of the rain, 50 or so came in from the north west and roosted in
my houses just before dark. They left first thing in the morning and I never
seen them again. They were migrating and used my houses for a B&B. Kind of
cool isn't it?

[Kelly Applegate~MN]

Hi Bob,

Do you know of any roosts up that way? Our roost here in Minnesota is continually increasing in size....last night on the pontoons we noticed masses of martins coming in from the north. We estimated about 80,000+ last night.

We have also been reading leg bands at the staging areas and are getting some great results. It would be great if some of your colonies were banded next year to see if they stop at our roosts on the way down during migration.

In Minnesota, we are using silver bands on one leg, and red color bands on the other.......it's much easier to read the color bands with the scopes.

[Bob Buskas]

Hi Kelly, Roosts up here in Alberta are hard to find and some years in my opinion barely get started and they leave. This year was a late nesting year due to the cold in May and June. Also lots of rain in August. Our Martins usually leave here in mid August. In my opinion they don't form large roosts until they hit the USA border in the Dakotas. I don't know if our Western Canadian Martins (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) travel into Minnesota or not. But we do band them here, This year about 2000, HY martins were banded with a silver federal wildlife band on the left leg. Also about 600 have a dirty Yellow coloured band on their Right leg along with the silver band on the left. I banded 305 here at Northern Skys colony and about 100 at Country Nine .....my second colony. Last year we banded about 4000 nestlings here in Alberta so keep a close eye, you never know. Thanks for your reply and stay in touch.

[Bob Buskas]

Kelly, where are these large roosts in Minn. are any roosts on the western side of Minnesota? Do you know of any in North Dakota?