Martin Feeding

White River Valley Martin · Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:23 pm

Can martins feed on a 54 degree cloudy day with 13 mph winds? I tried feeding them Monday and they wouldnt go after anything. They looked pretty miserable yesterday, but would chase anything, so just wondering if they might be finding food somewhere. They are only leaving for about 2 hours a day

Chris

Barry Wallace · Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:58 pm

Chris, with the wind and clouds I doubt if your birds are finding food. Some people have had good luck placing crickets in the compartments but I never had much luck with that. I would keep trying to get them to take flipped crickets. If you notice one bird paying attention to the crickets as they go buy, concentrate on that bird. It only takes one to figure it out and the rest will catch on quickly. Once you get them to take the flipped crickets it's not hard to convert to eggs and a platform feeder. Here in WI it seems like we go through this every spring. It's great peace of mind to have them trained. Good luck, I hope they'll eat for you.

White River Valley Martin · Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:05 pm

I have had them make it through a week of high 30's and low 40's before. But the sun was shining bright with little or no wind, but they left eveyday for several hours. I have 5 birds back and they very seldom have left for the last 3 or 4 days. They just set there on the perching rods all day. Yestrday 2 of them only come out of the gourds for about 20 minutes. It was very windy and cloudy and about 57 degrees