Water soaked fledglings and Red tailed hawk

[ken buker]

Being a fanatic about my martin passion and becoming elated with excitement upon establishing my backyard martin colony in 2004, one thing has become increasingly clear since becoming an active landlord . It is not for the faint at heart.

It can be heartbreaking and emotionally painful, but I have learned to become somewhat hardened to the realities of nature. I have experienced what I’m sure are common occurrences at many mid west and eastern colony sites. My colony is probably closer to eastern martin behavior and character than can be found elsewhere in the Western part of the US or BC Canada.

It has grown from a single SY pair in 2004 (nest only, no eggs) to 46 active nest in 2010. My season is not yet over, but the colony is in the midst of fledging nearly 200 nestlings and the excitement and chaos throughout the day is sometimes more than we bargain for.

Over the years I have experienced nest failure due to abandonment of both egg clutches and very young nestlings, owl predation that nearly wiped out my colony in 2006, premature fledging due to excessive heat, infanticide by young SY males, and an occasional death of an unfortunate nestling for whatever reason. But this year I have had two new experiences that have also caught me somewhat by surprise.

Here in the Pacific Northwest after a soggy and cool Spring, the last several weeks have been nearly ideal martin weather. The late Spring appears to have resulted in a tighter nesting season (ASY and SY pairs close together rather than separated by two, three or four weeks) and what appear to be a reduced egg clutch size on average.

Saturday and Sunday (8/7 and 8/8) brought a steady drizzle of rain. Not cold but wet. Not so good for fledging martins. I have collected at least 8 young birds that became waterlogged on their maiden voyage from the cavity. For those familiar with the fledging process, young birds leaving the nest are often mobbed by adults, I’m sure in most cases an effort to get them accustomed to finding their wings and getting them air born. Usually this close encounter continues for several minutes in the air as they move away from their cavity in the colony to a nearby staging area at the top of a tree or a favorite perching limb at a local observation point.

During the wet, drizzly weather, their young feathers get soaked, and along with a build up of fecal material from a dirty nest tends to glue their feathers together. They become waterlogged and hit the ground. Once on the ground and in the grass (and I keep my area under the racks mowed lawn short) they cannot get air born on their own and can become fair game for either predation or simply succumb to the elements. Fortunately for the eight I found, I put them into a dry bucket with pine straw and let them dry out. After drying thoroughly I released them into a mass of other martins swarming around the racks and they appear no worse for wear.

The other new experience this season has been visits from the resident red tailed hawks. Throughout most of the season the martins pay these raptors no mind, but not so during fledging time and I found out why. Though unsuccessful in his attempt, I watched a male red tail attempt to catch a fledgling sitting in a Douglas fir tree outside my back door. There were at least 5 – 8 young fledglings in the tree and the red tail barley missed getting one then flew and landed in a nearby snag all the while being mobbed by dozens of martins. He tried again two days later, this time I didn’t see his initial attempt, but when I heard the infamous martin alarm call I ran out just in time to see him flying about five feet above the ground at the base of the gourd racks and my fear of course is that he picked off a grounded fledgling though I don’t know that for sure. Usually the red tail with his lazy slow aerial performance is no threat to martins and I doubt he has much interest, but new inexperienced fledglings are apparently too tempting even for them.

For the most part this has been a very good season. There were 46 active nests. One SY pair didn’t go beyond the green leaves stage late in the season, after evicting a pair of tree swallows. There were two nest failures. One nest was abandoned with eggs and the other with a 5 day old chick and eggs. All others have so far been successful. There will continue to be young nestlings leave their cavities through August 22nd when the last two nest are due to fledge.

For the first time, I conducted nest replacements on several cavities this season due to parasite infestation or dirty nesting material. Those with parasites I sprinkled a little “Seven” dust underneath the clean dry nesting material. Hopefully with no negative impact. So far I haven’t noticed any.

One final note, on July 23rd I took the opportunity to band 122 martin nestlings and one ASY female martin trapped with her nestlings. The rack was in the lowered position and this cavity happens to be a modified mailbox that martins love. The female continued feeding while the rack was lowered to the ground. These were among the oldest nestlings at 22 days so we waited until last to band them. I blocked the entrance hole to avoid premature fledging and the female was trapped inside.

I’ve attached a few pictures of my colony. I continue to be very proud of how it has progressed over the last 6 years. I plan to add additional cavities next season and if all things work out, eventually I’d like to try for 75 - 100 pair. I truly love the experience and though events can be gut wrenching at times, I hope to continue providing martin habitat for many years to come.

Ken Buker

2004 – 1 SY pair (nest but no eggs)
2005 – 3 pair
2006 – 13 pair
2007 – 20 pair
2008 – 25 pair
2009 – 34 pair
2010 – 46 pair

[CraigMo.]

You have a very nice site. Good Job
Craig

[Bob Buskas]

Congratulations Ken on your huge success. Nice to see a large colony in the Pacific NW. You must have the largest colony in your state? Also nice to see multiple compartment houses being used. I sure would love to see you try a Northstar or Bungalow next year. What do you think? The west coast Martins are on their way back again .......good for you!

[LarryL-MN]

Thanks for the update on your colony, Ken. It is just wonderful to see how fast your colony is growing. Keep up the great work. Thanks for sharing the pictures of your colony.

[stan kostka]

Hi Ken,

Did I ever tell you about that site in Spanaway ? It was in a backyard, a rather suburban setting, started out with a few single boxes, then grew as more multiple cavity houses went up, and then a gourd rack. I banded birds there a couple years. I first heard about it in 1999, and by 2004 it was up to about 20 pairs. I have not been in touch with Hugh for many years and don't know what's up with the colony now, but I do recall he mentioned a Red Tail taking grounded fledglings on occasion.

Stan

[Virgil McCoy]

Hi Ken, those are some fantastic pictures of your gourd racks. I particularly like the hanging mail box, a real conversation piece ! I used to live in the Poulsbo area for a couple of years and really miss it. I can imagine how Martins would thrive in that climate.

Virgil McCoy