What a great day! My martins are finally back

Trishy · Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:44 pm

They are 2 weeks late, but 2 asy males and 1 asy female showed up this morning. This is the nicest day of Spring so far with temps in the 60's. They look to be in good shape and are out feeding and probably looking for more martins. Our first bluebird showed up today, also. I haven't seen any tree swallows, however. They always beat the martins back. I fear we may have lost a lot of the tree swallows if they got back here too soon. Spring finally made it to northern WI

Nealbopper · Fri Apr 26, 2013 1:41 pm

I had a tree swallow show up last week then the cold spell hit and I haven't seen it since. I'm hoping to get some Martins this year. I'm ready thats for sure. I have bluebirds in my backyard. Check out my Youtube clip. Neals bluebird movie. Take are.

rcwisk · Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:04 pm

Glad to see the martins finally made it back to Shell Lake, WI. I live in West Bend, WI and my first birds returned about a week and one half ago with more returning very slowly.......hopefully this warm weather will speed things up a bit.

DebA · Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:05 pm

Trish,
YAY! I am happy for you. It's almost been a month for me but it has been a month of worry. But alas they are doing well! What cool birds they are. Enjoy and I hope pleny more join yours soon.
Deb

Trishy · Fri Apr 26, 2013 8:08 pm

Thanks guys. Deb, glad to see your birds are doing good. I follow your posts. Rc, my sister's stepdaughter and husband live in West Bend. I have never been there, but they sure seem to like it. Cool video Neal. That is a nice bluebird feeder. The bluebirds must really love you. I hope you can get some martins also. If you feed them as well as you do the bluebirds they will stay for life

johnnycoon · Fri Apr 26, 2013 10:12 pm

I wish I had tree swallows but I dont think they are in my area of Kansas.I have barnies though and i guess thats good enough.

Gobbler T · Sat Apr 27, 2013 6:54 am

Good to hear Trish. Glad your season has started.

DebA · Sat Apr 27, 2013 7:18 am

Trish,
You do? It's probably a good thing Louise comes along and censors me on occasion! (Sorry Louise, it's true as you try to keep me on topic.)

Johnnycoon,
I think I saw a tree swallow last week trying to grab crickets with my martins. It gave up after four flips. Otherwise I've never seen them either. I had a pair of barn swallows show up on Mar. 28th. But I haven't seen them now since that first week of April ice.

Deb

Dave W · Sat Apr 27, 2013 11:54 am

Congrats Trish. I only have 2 pair but another pair showed up today. Lots of activity today. More barn swallows came in today. Your Tree Swallows are on the way. They disappeared during the cold weather but I Have found no dead ones or martins in any of the housing. I wonder if they retreat south during cold spells? Enjoy your birds! More on the way.

BIOteacher012 · Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:03 pm

Hi Trish,
I live in Montello, WI. We had a huge influx of tree swallows today with the warmer weather. They are like mosquitos down here. They should be arriving shortly by you. I will trade you some of these TS for some martins. This is my second year of trying at my new house......had one pair of martins at my previous house before moving to a larger home. Sure hard having to start over with decoys and Chatter CDs. Anyways, there are a few colonies within a 15 mile radius from me with some martins back, but not too many so far. Hope things pick up and the subbies start moving north pretty soon. Glad to hear about your birds returning. Good luck this season.

Trishy · Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:18 am

Thanks for the update. Brian, I would like to trade you some martins for tree swallows, but my female left, and I am down to 2 males. I thought they would of found some females yesterday, but I guess not. I hope you can get some martins to stay this year. It is hard starting over. I hope the rest of my birds show up soon, because I think these guys are getting lonely.

~Ray~Gingerich · Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:53 am

Congrats on your martin arrivals, hope they do good this year.

Trishy · Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:17 pm

Thanks Ray. It would be nice if they could find a couple of lonely females to bring in.

John Barrow · Sun Apr 28, 2013 8:43 pm

Congratulations Trisha. Martins are pouring into the county now--later than normal, but they are coming. A good mix of subbies and ASYs earlier in the week--the SYs were mostly females. They were standed by the weather midweek, and are now well fed and on their way north. I look for a huge number of subadults following in the next two or three weeks. They are arriving in big numbers along the coast right now.

Last year, most of the country had good production numbers.Many are now arriving and their total numbers should be huge.

I hope you have a great season.

Trishy · Mon Apr 29, 2013 9:08 pm

Thanks for the update John. Starting Wed. we have 5 days of rain and temps in the 40's. They may have to wait a little while longer. I saw the boys brought in a couple of females today. Hopefully they stay. I am still several asy males short, but with the great report you guys are sharing, maybe they are still on their way. Best of luck to you this season.

tonyg · Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:13 am

Great day to show up Trish! It's my wife's and I's 27 Anniversary!! Enjoy your Martin season..

Beth H · Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:11 am

So glad to hear you finally got some birds. So far, here, we are still looking for ours. Not a sign of one yet.

Weather is slowly warming up so they should be here soon.

Trishy · Tue Apr 30, 2013 1:45 pm

Happy Anniversary Tony. I hope you and your wife have a great day together. I think 27 years together is awesome.

Beth, I called home this morning, and apparently a lot of martins have showed up today, so maybe some are on their way further north. I hope you get them soon, and I hope you have a great season.