Martins in Illinois!!!

[Ladybug]

Frank:
They are so lucky to have you. Keep up the good work.
Keep us all updated. A work in progress.
Hope the weather changes soon for the Martins.
We are expecting another snow storm. 6-10 inches of snow,
maybe ice too= Sat. Sunday. Not good.

[Frank Hargis-IL]

First , thanks to you all for your good wishes.

There is a lot more to the story. My wife and I are both getting on in years and she has a lot of knee problems and I have a lot of back problems (three operations).

Any way, last year we decided to give up our martins after more than twenty years. Sure was hard to do but we sold both of our martin houses and all of our gourds after the martins left for the winter. I figured we would have martins showing up here and maybe needing fed so I kept up the meal worms.

We have had, for several years, a lot of landscaping in our backyard including two water gardens, one with water falls. This is all in the process of being leveled off and will be all grass when finished.

Well, sure enough we had the two martins show up earlier than we have ever had them before. I contacted the person who bought everything and talked him out of two gourds. Just couldn't bear to think maybe the birds wouldn't find somewhere ready for them. I hung the two gourds on Sheppard's hooks about 5 1/2 ft. off the ground. Have had two gourds like this for a few years and always have martins in them. I've seen this year's birds on the gourds but have not seen them enter the gourds. Don't really think they have been spending the night here. They have shown up together each morning and a couple of time later in the day to be fed. They've went through a lot of mealworms in a short time. This morning the male showed up by his self and again later in the day. Haven't seen the female at all today. She has been acting very active and healthy and eating well. I'm afraid something has happened to her, maybe a hawk or something. It’s almost 4:00 o’clock as I’m writing this and still haven’t seen her.

Something a little funny, both of the martins eat out of the feeder real well but they would rather I tossed worms to them. They keep feeding this way until I stop then they go to the feeder.

This giving up the martins is really hard.

[DakotaLady]

Aww Frank, I am so sorry you had to give up your martin houses. I think I would bawl like a baby if I had to give up my martins.

But I understand, I have 20 acres with about 2 acres in gardens and last year I decided I needed to put in conifers, shrubs and trees and cut back on the perennials as they are just too much work and with traveling a little for my job it really makes for a mess when I get home. I also have two watergardens with koi and that will be one of the last things I remove if ever. My heart goes out to you and your wife. It is too bad you could not find someone who could come in and help you with your martins so that you could still sit and enjoy them.

I suspect your pair is probably spending the night in yours gourds. They seem to zip in and out so quickly that we tend to miss them.

[Frank Hargis-IL]

jr 2 - sorry for the long reply time..... The feeder is homemade and yes it is low, about five foot off the ground. Here's a link to a close-up picture if you want to look:

http://myplace.frontier.com/~flhargis1/ ... Feeder.jpg

As I stated earlier the female disapeared about the 3rd or 4th day. The male is still doing great. Hard to believe how many mealworm one bird can eat!!!

Luck to you all.

[Matt F.]

Frank,
Your are doing a wonderful service for those Martins.
To keep caring for the early returners like you have, providing them with life saving food, and even a couple of gourds, really speaks volumes about how generous and caring, you and your wife are.

[jr 2]

frank;are your martins still there;;sorry you had too get rid of your housing;;thanks for the closeup pic of your feeder;;god job;i will try too build one if I need it;; no martins here yet but got the rest of my houses and gourds up today as the weather here was nice for a change;;jr2

[chickadee]

frank, I am also very sorry for you having to give up your martins. it must be heart breaking and sounds like a habit to break for you and your martins. you are such a devoted landlord. and just the kind these birds need. but as you explain it in your condition it is understandable. how many martins did you host? did you ever consider to going down to one 12 gourd rack? something a little less to manage that would not take a lot of effort? this is one reason why I want to keep my site smaller and not on the large side. I think about the day I can not do it. I am young but I have a heart condition from when I had my son and on medicine for life till I have a heart surgery at least. so your story I think gives us all something to think about. I am trying to train my son to take over. lol)))but on a shorter note I feel for you and your wife and wish their was some way to keep a small part of this wonderful bird in your lives. I am not trying to pressure you or rub in the wound. it is just hard to imagine. best wishes to you both.

[Louise Chambers]

The landlords in Trafalgar, IN, with a Feb 18 scout report notified us that their early arrivals are alive & doing fine, thanks to plenty of scrambled eggs and hand warmers in the gourds. Some nights got as cold as 5 degrees!

As of Mar 13, they have 3 males and one female has arrived to keep them happier.

[chickadee]

o my gosh! that is amazing. I am so happy to hear that. it has weighed on my mind. thanks for that up date!

[Glen Webb Jr]

Well, if the forecast holds true, they'll need more supplemental feeding early next week. Supposed to start cooling off here Sunday and continue till at least Wednesday or Thursday with highs in upper 30s and lower 40s.

I can't believe these birds are showing up like this. I go from one bird on the 14th to four the next day. I'm sure there are more already. I really wish they would hold off, but the crazy birds will not answer their cell phones to save their soul.

I really fear this spring is going to be a repeat of a few years ago when I lost a lot of birds. Many returned before the first week of April and the weather turned very nasty for a few weeks. But I have watched the birds feed in 42+ degree weather as long as winds are not too extreme. I wish I could feed them but they are on their own.

[cbyeagley]

It is fantastic that you were able to train your Martins to take food at a feeder. How did you do, and how long did it take?

[Frank Hargis-IL]

Well, it's been a long time ago since I started training the birds to feed on mealworms. Seems most people flip worms or crickets with a plastic spoon. I did it a little different. I used a straw as a miniature blow gun. Latter went to a piece of aluminum arrow 8 or 9 inches long. You need to start when the birds haven't eaten for a couple of days. Put the insect in the straw and shoot it across in front of the birds. A lot of insects were wasted as the birds just set and watched them go by. Eventually one of the birds got the idea and started catching them. Then it's monkey see monkey do! Takes a lot of time and a lot of worms. Later, after I had a lot of birds catching worms I started putting some in a feeder and then standing back and tossing worms toward the feeder. All of this over two or three years and some just never catch on. Some of the tamer ones come within a couple of feet of me when I throw for them and even come when I whistle. The male that was the first to show up this year came down for food as soon as I opened the back door the first time I saw him. After they started eating off the feeder I put a top on the feeder so other birds couldn't get in to the worms. Mostly robins. They will eat a ton of worms!
Made it so the height of the top plate was adjustable and started out with it up a ways. Then as the birds got to using it fairly well I lowered it until it was only open enough that the birds had to get down like they were entering a crescent opening. After all the years feeding there are still some who just can’t seem to get it.

Good luck.

Frank

[cbyeagley]

Thanks for the info Frank. I will try to start training our Martins. We actually grow our own mealworms as we have Bluebirds that don't migrate, and we were spending a fortune buying mealworms to try to keep them fed during really bad weather. The Bluebirds trained pretty easily. We have a cedar covered gazebo style feeder with a slide out platform tray that my husband mounted on a PVC pole that is level with the rails of our covered back porch (the feeder is within arms reach from the porch to place mealworms in the feeder). We have a red plastic coffee can that we use to put the mealworms in the tray, and as soon as we open the back door, and the Bluebirds see the red can, they fly over to the porch roof just above the feeding tray, and start feeding before we even get back in the door.

We keep our Martin housing lowered about half mast during Winter so maybe if I put a shepherds hook out there near the housing and put a platform feeder on it, we can go from there. I need to figure a way to shoot the mealworms in the air near the housing and platform feeder and see if I can get the PM's to take the food. Anyway, thank you so much. It sounds like "patience" is the operative word in this process.

By the way, it sounds like you have been a wonderful Martin landlord over the years, and have provided a great landscape atmosphere for them and you and your wife to enjoy.