Our Martins Showed Up Two Weeks Early

[cbyeagley]

We finally got Martins three years ago after six years of trying, and keep a journal of their arrival. They usually get here in Salem, VA at the end of March or first of April, so we were totally surprised yesterday to look out and see two adult Martins (I think they were adult as they were both solid in color, except one had a thin light streak on one side). Do Martins normally fluctuate that much in arrival times? We also have Tree Swallows and they are exact to the day, ie, March 10th, every year unless it is a leap year and then it might be the 11th.

We were excited to see them, but worry because they came right as freezing temperatures and a wintry mix came too. We are expected to have cold temperatures for a couple of days,

[Don~VA]

Congratulations CB! I hope those PMs know what they are doing by flying into all this cold and snowy weather. Mine usually arrive about the same time as yours.. 1 Apr. But my Tree Swallows did arrive 14 Mar, 2 weeks ahead of last years date. It seems martins have their own schedule which is impossible to predict.
Good Luck with your PMs this season!

[cbyeagley]

Thanks Don. I hope you have a good Martin season also. Did you get Martins the first year you tried? I have been sporadic in posting on the Forum as I was working and just really busy, so I may have missed your original postings. I just retired about six weeks ago, so hopefully will have more time to enjoy what is going on with other Purple Martin lovers. How many Martins do you now have? We started out with only three or four, and only one pair nested, but they all came back, and last year we had about 20 pairs of Martins and bookoos of babies that fledged. We also had about 8 or 10 dead babies that we found at the end of the season when we cleaned out the nests. We did not do nest checks because we were apprehensive about scaring the parents off, but I told my husband, Bill, that we needed to do nest checks this year and hopefully not have any casualties. We did save two babies that wound up on the ground under the nest. We didn't know which nest they fell out of so we originally placed them in a little rigged up shelter off the ground, midway up the pole. Some Martins (probably the parents) attempted to feed them for a day or two, but then seemed to abandon them as we did not see any Martins going to the babies with food. We then contacted the PMCA for advice and were told to try to place them in an active nest that did not have too many babies in it and maybe the adults of that nest would start to feed them. We actually found one nest that only had one baby in it and so we put them in that one. We were blessed that the two adults started feeding them and seemed to adopt them because they eventually fledged.

[MM]

In my experience, as the colony gets older they can come in earlier.

We tried for a number of years too before we got our first pair.

Hope you have a good year.

[chickadee]

I have heard they come 2 weeks earlier up until the earliest point they cant. whatever that means? last year my birds came 2 weeks earlier then the year before. I thought this was the earliest time they would come. march 31st. well last week one showed up. he left so he was someone elses. but earliest I have ever seen one here. and first time I have ever seen one come and hang out that was not mine. every year me and another man here get are birds the same day. so you cant tell me they don't travel together. it is hard to know what these birds are thinking?

[Don~VA]

Wow... You must be in a Purple Martin rich area to grow your colony that fast! I still dream of having 20 pairs!! :-) I have only had nesting martins since 2011 and several visitors in 2010. Prior to that it took about 15 years of trying to re-establish my lost colony for unknown reasons. In 2011 I had only one nesting pair and a few visitors, in 2012 I had two nesting pair and 100's of visitors at seasons end. I thought 2013 would be my year but only four pair nested and two of those did not fledge. Like you, I did not do weekly nest checks for fear of loosing my few birds. But last year I did early checks and discovered two gourds completely infested with mites. I am so glad I did the inspections and resolved the mite invasion with a little Sevin dust. I recommend putting a little Sevin under your prenest when you raise your house or gourds. The dead babies you found could have been victims of mites or a juvenile SY martin.

Congratulations on your retirement too and a PM colony is perfect for every day enjoyment. You probably already know you can get all kinds of advice, suggestions, and answers on this forum so keep in touch and let us know how your season progresses.

[cbyeagley]

We had terrible weather yesterday (in the 20's and rain/sleet/snow mix. One of the two Martins that showed up two weeks early took off mid-morning and the second one took off in the afternoon. I haven't seen them since but it is still very cold and overcast. It is supposed to warm up into upper 40's or 50's tomorrow. We will see if they come back, or maybe they were just visitors.

We have plenty of housing, as we have a T-14 (16 units with four wooden gourds hung below), a Quad-Pod (8 units, also with four wooden gourds hung below), a gourd pole with 12 wooden gourds and another man-made T-post with four plastic gourds. For some reason, the Quad-Pod was the central hub last year and every unit was filled with a nest, along the wooden gourds. I would have thought the T-14 would be the favorite, but that was not the case. Thanks for the tip to put Sevin dust under the pre-nest. Did you use pine straw for the pre-nest. I think we also put some cedar chips with ours last year as I had heard that deterred some pests. I watched some Martins take the chips from one nest box into another. I couldn't decide if they moved the chips because they liked them or to get them out of their nest. We don't know what they are thinking, but they are great fun to watch and try to figure out what they are up to.