Nest Check Question
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malachy cleary
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2004 8:01 pm
- Location: cold spring n.y.
- Martin Colony History: First breeding pair in 2011. Site moved up hill 350 feet at beginning of nesting season
2019 to accommodate road construction.
Colony seems to have weathered the upheaval
I am a first time landlord with my first two pairs of nesting martins. I found a a headless banded sub adult male about 3 weeks ago. Today I did a nest check on a gourd that had hatched 4 fledglings about 12 days ago and found one left. Am I having an owl problem? I looked for any evidence of wing parts and such around the house and found nothing. The other active compartment has 2 fledglings at about 19 days. One had a piece of twine so tangled around one of its feet that it had lost it. I untangled the string and hope that it will survive. All in All a grim nest check but hopefully the remaining three will survive.Any thoughts?
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Ed Svetich-WI
- Posts: 815
- Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:05 pm
- Location: Brooks, Wi (McGinnis Lake)
- Martin Colony History: 24 Super and Excluder Gourds on two gourd racks, all SREH. Full occupancy. My philosophy is to maximize fledge % with existing cavities rather than adding gourds to grow colony, thus providing opportunities for new colony expansion. Fledge over 100 nestlings yearly from 24 gourds. Band nestlings in cooperation with state university. 2019 Adendum: Reduced colony size to 12 gourds to focus on more intensive management regimen.
Sounds like you have had a run of bad luck. With only three left, I would be keeping a very close eye on that nest although it is getting too close for many more nest checks. From your post it seems that there has been quite an interval between nest checks. There is no way to determine what killed your headless martin but I think that an owl or hawk would have taken the body away rather than leave a headless corpse. As to the nestling with the twine around its' leg, it took quite a while for the twine to cut off the circulation to the foot.
As a new martin host, you need to be even more vigilant to make sure that your martins have successfully fledged young to increase your odds of having the adults return next year. Use this experience to guide your activities next year.
Good luck,
Ed
As a new martin host, you need to be even more vigilant to make sure that your martins have successfully fledged young to increase your odds of having the adults return next year. Use this experience to guide your activities next year.
Good luck,
Ed
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malachy cleary
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2004 8:01 pm
- Location: cold spring n.y.
- Martin Colony History: First breeding pair in 2011. Site moved up hill 350 feet at beginning of nesting season
2019 to accommodate road construction.
Colony seems to have weathered the upheaval
Thanks Ed,
I have actually been checking the nests. This time I noticed the twine on the fledgling's foot because I changed the nests. I have been told that an owl will just take a head off a bird when food is plentiful. Apparently they do that to the nearby chickens. Yeah, a run of bad luck I guess. There is a solitary unhatched egg in another gourd that I think must have belonged to the dead martin I spotted. The gourd with the single fledgling is a large natural gourd with a rain canopy. I thought about rigging some sort of Owl guard in front of it but I think it might spook the parents. Maybe not?
I have actually been checking the nests. This time I noticed the twine on the fledgling's foot because I changed the nests. I have been told that an owl will just take a head off a bird when food is plentiful. Apparently they do that to the nearby chickens. Yeah, a run of bad luck I guess. There is a solitary unhatched egg in another gourd that I think must have belonged to the dead martin I spotted. The gourd with the single fledgling is a large natural gourd with a rain canopy. I thought about rigging some sort of Owl guard in front of it but I think it might spook the parents. Maybe not?
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Becky
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:06 pm
- Location: Houston - Oak Forest
- Martin Colony History: first pair in 2010, 12 pairs last several years
Regarding the single egg, this year I had 3 nesting pairs, up from 1 pair last spring, and I had two females (an ASY and a SY) lay their first egg in their permanent nest for the season, then lay a second egg in another compartment. When I confirmed where the next egg was laid, I moved the single egg. It's possible one of your pairs did the same thing.