My numbers are down

[hoopsnut]

Usually by this time of year I have 65+ birds scrapping for nesting space, but so far about 36. Do you suppose the big push of ASY birds are still holding back or has the bulk of the old birds arrived in central Iowa.

I did have an SY-m show up yesterday.

[Courtney-NC]

I don't know about Iowa, but numbers are down here also in central NC. Three other colonies near me have half the number they usually do. One is well-managed so I know it wasn't an S&S problem.

[Bob]

My numbers are slightly down. It is strange, because I break my site down into 2 sites, since one setup is in the barnyard area and the other setup is about 1/2 mi to the north past some farmland, a creek, some woods and a pond.

My farm site is on track from last year (same total pairs from last year) with a moth to month 1/2 to go. My pond site only has 1 pair back and last 3 years, I have had 9 to 10 pairs at this site. Maybe the birds consider the two one large site!

Hopefully your numbers will go up, now that warmer weather is here!!

Bob

[hoopsnut]

I'll be watching intently this weekend, maybe 80 degrees will bring 'em in.

[hoopsnut]

New arrivals the last 2 days 15-20, things are looking better. 80 degrees in central Iowa today.

[wbmiller3]

Small colony, but I only have about half my usual number of nests this year.

[Matt F.]

Small colony, but I only have about half my usual number of nests this year.

Exactly the same here Bill.
I'm not anticipating anymore couples moving in, and I currently have half the number of active nests compared to last season.
There seems to be something causing this.
Perhaps the drought conditions have led to such a scarce amount of food, that many Martins are simply too busy keeping themselves nourished, to even contemplate, or attempt, nesting.
Another thing I'm wondering, is if the oil spill from last year has any sort of negative impact on the Martins.
Needless to say many of our Martins meet up at the huge, Lake Pontchartrain bridge roost, prior to setting off for South America.
No doubt many of them flew over the marshes, estuaries, canals, etc., that had been contaminated.
Not knowing much about physiology of Martins, in reference to how much chemical contamination they can endure, I can only speculate that due their small size, they probably cannot endure much.
Imagine how many were potentially splash bathing, in the contaminated brackish, and salt water, on their way out.
Add to that the extreme physical stress endured, during their long migrations - especially their trans-Gulf runs, and one can definitely see a possible potential for trouble.
One can only hope, that nothing like that happened to any of them.

[Joe Zorn]

Hmm... I am pretty sure that my decreased numbers is from a pair of hawks that cruized the air for about two weeks in early March. But I had not realized that others were getting lower numbers as well.

In early season, I was prediciting a banner year. I had WAY MORE birds by the last day or February than I usually had in all of March. But by the end of March, the numbers were much less than in the beginning.

Not that the season has been a failure. Yesterday's nest check showed 82 babies and 75 eggs in 33 nests. But I have not had a new egg laid in about a week, and no new nests in that time either. In previous years, I had new nests being built and eggs laid for about two more weeks.

It appears that the birds came in early this year, but started falling off early as well.

[Joe Zorn]

Deleted by the author. Posted in the wrong thread.

[hoopsnut]

Another big push of birds today.....I'm fillin' up fast now.