Way, way too EARLY for Missouri!

JoLita · Tue Feb 18, 2014 4:17 pm

Hello everyone! I live in southeast Missouri and I had just gotten home from work around 2:40 p.m. I heard a wonderful sound...went outside and sure enough, I saw & heard a male martin. Didn't have my gourds up yet but quickly got four put up. He waited on one of the other gourd rack perches til I got the gourds put up. He flew away and then returned to check out a gourd! I am always so happy to see the martins return, but this is way to early. This is our first warm day in weeks and even still have snow on the ground. Hope he makes it!!!

DornCounty · Tue Feb 18, 2014 4:52 pm

wow.. that is early.. Certainly related to being that close to the Mississippi.

Craig Haddox · Tue Feb 18, 2014 9:38 pm

JoLita, congratulation's on your early arrival. I'm about 50 miles West of St.Louis and my earliest arrival is March 10th. I had to feed her a few times to help her out. She was here 12 days before a male arrived to keep her company. Good luck with the martins this year.

Jeff Robinson · Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:06 pm

Very early indeed Jolita, but I'm sure your determination and care will get them thru. Looks like some cool weather forecast for next week, but nothing in comparison to previous weeks and months.

Your report should encourage many of us to get our crickets ordered a little sooner than expected. I put two racks up yesterday, but am hoping mine will not return as early as last year, where I had my first return the day after you in the middle of a snowstorm.

Best to you!

Jeff

JoLita · Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:14 pm

Thank you! I have plenty of crickets in the deep freeze and will do my best to take care of my birds! But just wish the martins would hold off for a little while longer.
Good luck to all of you!
Jo Lita

JL Murray · Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:29 am

Looks like the Crickets are not going to go to waste this year.

CraigMo. · Wed Feb 19, 2014 5:55 am

Congrats

Wish you the best in this early start.

chickadee · Thu Feb 20, 2014 9:29 pm

Does anyone ever wonder if some martins return so early because of supplement feeding? Like they depend on us more and more? I am in know way saying its bad or not to do it. I just wonder that???

Louise Chambers · Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:01 am

That's a good question - there's been no correlation noted between supplemental feeding and earlier returns.

Return time seems to be related to age and to departure time, plus weather, which can slow or speed northern migration. Other triggers are hormonal changes in the birds, and increasing hours of daylight (or diminishing hours of daylight for southern migration.)

Part of the geolocator research is looking at migration timing factors - we are learning so much from the geo projects. The PMCA is very fortunate to be working with York University and other researchers - we have great research partners and advisors.

Doug Martin - PA · Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:45 am

Martins don't seem to like, or look forward, to supplemental feeding. I would not think it would influence their return.

It is amazing how quickly they ignore the feeder when the weather warms.

They much prefer flying insects given a choice. I agree with Louise.

Doug

chickadee · Fri Feb 21, 2014 2:39 pm

I am not sure about that last post. Because I have seen robins in my yard with snow. Since I started to feed them grapes. Now it seems like they come back earlier then before I gave them the grapes. And I can tell new robins from the old. The old ones go after the grapes when I throw them. And the new robins just walk by them. It is what makes me wonder if some of these birds are smart enough to think I can leave and get back to my grounds sooner because I will have help? Just a thought. Or it is just the crazy changes in the weather.

Louise Chambers · Fri Feb 21, 2014 2:51 pm

Robins can be found throughout their breeding range year round, though - they do not migrate like purple martins. see http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_robin/id

So few landlords feed martins overall - although it's discussed a lot here, this is really a pretty small percentage of the landlords in the US and Canada- that feeding could not be influencing or causing the fact that martins return earlier than they used to.

Chuck4 · Fri Feb 21, 2014 3:05 pm

chickadee wrote:Does anyone ever wonder if some martins return so early because of supplement feeding? Like they depend on us more and more? I am in know way saying its bad or not to do it. I just wonder that???

Nah, those martins return early because they want the best nesting spot. They take a big risk, but it's solely for getting first dibs on the best nesting cavity. Like Louise and Doug said they aren't showing up to be fed. They are showing up to breed...

That is why they come north. I'm fairly certain none of the martins in my area are fed supplementally, and very few landlords even do nest checks around here yet they still show up dangerously early.

Also, I'd go so far as to say the martin showing up in Missouri was not really way too early looking back at previous years and arrival times for the state.

DornCounty · Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:14 pm

I could see how feeding would contribute to early arrival... typically nature would cull the birds who are not "smart" enough to wait for the proper time. Feeding would prevent that cull, allowing those birds to pass on those traits for early arrival. All that said, there is not enough feeding to have any significant impact on the overall trends.

Louise Chambers · Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:33 pm

Plus there really is not always a safe/unsafe, or proper, time. One year a bad Easter blizzard (I think it was 1983) killed thousands of martins - it was a huge die-off that hit numerous states. The storm was a fluke, the martins had returned at the average time, not too early. The years they return at average time and that is followed by bad, sustained weather, many will die.

Think about the past 2-3 years, when martins returned at the normal time, then the weather turned rotten for a couple of weeks - landlords fed in MO, KS, KY, OH, and many other states, some for up to two weeks, or they would have lost a lot of their adult martins. Of course, that's nature - and subadult returns will make up for adult losses, but in states where populations are declining, no one wants to see the adults suffer heavy losses.

chickadee · Fri Feb 21, 2014 6:09 pm

Got a good point. I do know robins are here year round. But before I was feeding them they went to deep woods and you would not see them. And every year I think the tree swallows put their self at the greatest risk coming back early. The weather will turn nasty for days or weeks and they leave their boxes then show back up. And I am surprised to see them alive.

CraigMo. · Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:14 am

JoLita
How are your martins doing? None here yet and I am glad.
Craig

Jeff Robinson · Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:15 pm

CraigMo. wrote:JoLita
.... None here yet and I am glad.
Craig

Amen Craig, but I'm ready beginning tomorrow with Spring and feeding temps thru next weekend!

Jeff

KathyF · Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:27 pm

Ditto what Craig said. I'm hoping they hold off another 2 weeks here!

As to the feeding causing them to return early; if you look back at a lot of the old stories of purple martins dying off due to returning too early, you'll see that supplemental feeding wasn't even discussed back then. So what caused them to return "early" back then? As Louise mentioned - it's all those factors. Purple martins aren't any better weather forecasters than some of our / most of our own trained weathermen.