Invisible visitors
All my PM's from my existing colony have disappeared due to the bad weather. I had pretty much given up. I noticed in one gourde an area hollowed out in the back like they like to do but never see any PM;s going in or out. I leveled the straw bedding and the next morning it was dug out again into a cavity. S I'm thinking someone is spending the night so I put a bunch of crickets in the gourde and several of the other units and in the morning the crickets are gone and there is a pit dug in the nesting material. I am using SREH tunnels on horizontals. No sparrows or starlings. Everyday I see a bunch of PM's across the lake but never at my site. I watch until it is dark and get up early but see no PM,s going in or out. But, I know they're there. Biggest problem is a sharpie in the neighborhood...he got an ASY male in my yard a week or so ago and today he got a baby Robin. Maybe the PM's are around only when the sharpie isn't.
Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans John Lennon
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DakotaLady
- Posts: 654
- Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 2:06 pm
- Location: Bismarck, ND
Hey Bbillyc,
Perhaps your martins are worried about attracting attention to your housing site and streak into the gourds at night in hopes of not getting caught by that Sharpie. It is possible he got more than one martin and now the others are being cautious.
In addition, it seems like my martins disappear when it's cold, rainy and windy and on the occasional nice day we get they show up out of no where.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge will chime in.
Good luck in getting your birds back. I would love to hear about your progress.
Perhaps your martins are worried about attracting attention to your housing site and streak into the gourds at night in hopes of not getting caught by that Sharpie. It is possible he got more than one martin and now the others are being cautious.
In addition, it seems like my martins disappear when it's cold, rainy and windy and on the occasional nice day we get they show up out of no where.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge will chime in.
Good luck in getting your birds back. I would love to hear about your progress.
~Tangula~
2013 - 16 pair, 79 eggs, 71 fledged
2012 - 4 pair, 18 eggs, 18 fledged
2013 - 16 pair, 79 eggs, 71 fledged
2012 - 4 pair, 18 eggs, 18 fledged
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flyin-lowe
- Posts: 3788
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:49 am
- Location: Indiana/Henry Co.
How long and how bad was the weather. I know sometimes early in the season if bad weather comes in they will go to a communal roost area with other martins and wait out the weather. As far as I know weather is not necessarily a cause for martins to abandon a site. Especially if they have nested there before. Obviously if the weather was too severe they could have died, but it is also likely they left to go somewhere to wait out the weather.
2026 HOSP 26
2025 62 pair HOSP 20
2024 60 pair, HOSP 44
2023 60+ pair, HOSP 8
2022 60 nests with 262 eggs, HOSP 14
2021 62 pair, HOSP 9
2020 42 nest, HOSP 8
2019- 31 pair
2018- 15 pair 49 fledged
2017 3 SY pair, 12 eggs , fledged 10. 4 additional lone SY's
2016 1 pair fledged 4
2015 Visitors
2014 Visitors
2013 Moved 6 miles, 1 pair fledged 2.
2012 30 pair fledged 100.
2011 12 pair 43 fledged.
2010 5 pair 14 fledged.
2025 62 pair HOSP 20
2024 60 pair, HOSP 44
2023 60+ pair, HOSP 8
2022 60 nests with 262 eggs, HOSP 14
2021 62 pair, HOSP 9
2020 42 nest, HOSP 8
2019- 31 pair
2018- 15 pair 49 fledged
2017 3 SY pair, 12 eggs , fledged 10. 4 additional lone SY's
2016 1 pair fledged 4
2015 Visitors
2014 Visitors
2013 Moved 6 miles, 1 pair fledged 2.
2012 30 pair fledged 100.
2011 12 pair 43 fledged.
2010 5 pair 14 fledged.
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AllenH
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:37 am
- Location: Minnesota/Crookston
- Martin Colony History: 2008 2 pair, 2009 22 pair, 2010 39 pair, 2011 51 pair
2012 66 pair, 2013 65 pair, 2014, 59 pair, 2015 67 pair
2016 78 pair, 108 nest cavities
My brother lives on Mille Lacs Lake, which is a large lake. He usually gets his PM's back a few days before I do. When we have bad weather like we have been having this year they all leave when it is cold and wet. They return as soon as the weather clears. I assume they go to a shallow wetland where bugs may be available. They did this several times this year and he is always filled up with nesting pairs. He doesn't feed his PM's.
My colony doesn't leave and stays from the first arrival and they wait for me to feed them. I started feeding just last year. I am 75 miles north and 150 miles west of my brother in prairie country. Without feeding this year my loses would have been high. I have found only one dead ASY male so far. He apparently died from what appeared as poisoning. He was fat and I saw him go from sitting on the fence to dead in just hours. He had no signs of trauma. I plucked his feathers to check him, he was actually a very plump bird.
I am filled to capacity (56 pair). The last few cold windy wet days I had many SY birds arrive at my site and they learned to feed quickly. I put up 2 spare THG under the Bed & Breakfast so some of them could huddle for the night. The next morning I had two more SY pairs claiming those gourds and staying.
This morning lots of continued nest building and fighting with SY birds. There were few if any unattached SY's at dark last night, but at least 6 more this AM. Nest check yesterday showed 40 eggs in 9 nests already and completed nests in most of the compartments. Most nests have green leaves.
Last year I had a Sharpie around and many times the PM's were gone all day from the very first light until it was almost too dark to see. This year the PM's are around all day long. Not the whole colony but many coming and going. I still have a Sharpie and Coopers hunting around my site, but there are several Crows and other alert birds around the site to help warn and chase.
As far as I can determine I currently have the only active colony in this town of 8000 population. There are some PM houses, but all are rundown and infested with sparrows and starlings. There is a newer house in a city park by the river with about 150 compartments that are all empty. I have only seen 1 House Sparrow on it in several years and no PM's.
Hard to believe 5 yrs ago I had none. Most of the improvements to my site came from reading posts on this Forum.
Sorry for all the editing, I must have been asleep when I wrote this.
My colony doesn't leave and stays from the first arrival and they wait for me to feed them. I started feeding just last year. I am 75 miles north and 150 miles west of my brother in prairie country. Without feeding this year my loses would have been high. I have found only one dead ASY male so far. He apparently died from what appeared as poisoning. He was fat and I saw him go from sitting on the fence to dead in just hours. He had no signs of trauma. I plucked his feathers to check him, he was actually a very plump bird.
I am filled to capacity (56 pair). The last few cold windy wet days I had many SY birds arrive at my site and they learned to feed quickly. I put up 2 spare THG under the Bed & Breakfast so some of them could huddle for the night. The next morning I had two more SY pairs claiming those gourds and staying.
This morning lots of continued nest building and fighting with SY birds. There were few if any unattached SY's at dark last night, but at least 6 more this AM. Nest check yesterday showed 40 eggs in 9 nests already and completed nests in most of the compartments. Most nests have green leaves.
Last year I had a Sharpie around and many times the PM's were gone all day from the very first light until it was almost too dark to see. This year the PM's are around all day long. Not the whole colony but many coming and going. I still have a Sharpie and Coopers hunting around my site, but there are several Crows and other alert birds around the site to help warn and chase.
As far as I can determine I currently have the only active colony in this town of 8000 population. There are some PM houses, but all are rundown and infested with sparrows and starlings. There is a newer house in a city park by the river with about 150 compartments that are all empty. I have only seen 1 House Sparrow on it in several years and no PM's.
Hard to believe 5 yrs ago I had none. Most of the improvements to my site came from reading posts on this Forum.
Sorry for all the editing, I must have been asleep when I wrote this.
Last edited by AllenH on Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:52 am, edited 3 times in total.
Al
2007 - None
2008 - 2 Pair
2015 - 67 pairs 324 eggs 268 hatched 261 fledged
2007 - None
2008 - 2 Pair
2015 - 67 pairs 324 eggs 268 hatched 261 fledged
In 1997 I lost my entire colony due to an extreme cold snap. They arrived on April 23 and the temperature dropped to -20 degrees. I was still new to the landlord thing having had a colony at that time for four years. I tried to feed them but they were not interested. The next morning they were all dead frozen to death. Since then I have been unable to get more than two pair to nest each year and my fear is that this year the cold killed what martins I had that had site fidelity. I see subbies passing through and I am sure that someone is spending the night but so far no interested lodgers. I am still hopeful though as the subbies are moving through.
Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans John Lennon