Cold Martins in Texas
Activity is finally starting to pick up at our martin house....but we think they look awfully cold! 48 degrees this morning in League City, TX.
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- 3/7/15, League City, TX
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birdy girl
- Posts: 1179
- Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:09 am
- Location: Mississippi/Dumas
Yes they look cold. Is the temp rising today?
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Anthony Neira
- Posts: 1319
- Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2014 1:12 pm
- Location: San Antonio /Texas
- Martin Colony History: Started in 1992 From neighbors old 1950-60's colonies. Have 8 Trio 6 Room Houses, 4 MPP Poles, 1 Heath Deluxe Gourd with Troyer Porch, 8 NatureLine Gourds with Troyer Porches, 5 Troyer Horizontals ,& 2 S&K 11" WITH Troyer Porches ready for 2019 Season !
Poor Guys ! 
Winter has 13 Days left!! 
Spring Starts 3/20 !!!
Winter has 13 Days left!! Spring Starts 3/20 !!!PMCA Member, 8 Trio 6 Room Houses, 1 Heath Deluxe Gourd with Troyer Porch, 8 NatureLine Gourds with Troyer Porches, 5 Troyer Horizontals + Tunnels, & 2 S&K Bo 11"s WITH Troyer Porches ! 4 MPPs, For 2019 Season !! Started in 1992 from Older '50-'60s Colonies.
Started in 1992 from Older '50-'60s Colonies.-
teridickinson
- Posts: 227
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:05 am
- Location: Texas/Lake Palestine
Finally a break in the weather in the DFW area. Only supposed to get in the 40's tonight (28 last night). Highs in the 50's with rain so still slim pickings but hopefully they'll do OK till mid week when normal weather returns.
Right before the weather went so bad we had seen a few martins but did not think any were staying here. On the 2nd or 3rd day of bad weather I saw several on my porches and tried to flip crickets for them but they were having no part of that. I put some on the porches after they left, but I've never had any luck getting them to eat dead crickets except to feed them to babies during extreme drought.
The next day I brought the house down mid day to check and flushed a single martin from a Bo-11. When I looked in the gourd, it was crammed full of martins. So we decided we had to bring them in. Later in the day, I went back out and the singleton was in the gourd and I managed to get him too, so that says just how cold and weak they were.
So for longer than I planned we kept them and fed them, first by stuffing with eggs/mealworms/crickets, then by getting them to catch live crickets in their boxes (we had to wait for some crickets to arrive to try that) and eventually getting them to eat dead crickets off the bottom of the container. We considered taking them to rehab but simply could not get there and they were doing well, so we just kept going. Every day we thought, tomorrow we can liberate them and every day the forecast just kept pushing back.
So after last night there were no more supercold temps predicted and sun predicted today, and we knew today would be the day. As I waited for it to warm up a little an entire flock of new martins appeared and started checking out the houses so I knew the time had come.
We had one pair and 4 bachelor ASY males and they were very happy to go join the group. I hope they will come back here and teach the others how to each dead crickets off the floor, so the next time something like this happens we'll be able to help them.
Noteworthy that they were all 6 huddled in the south facing gourd on the pole which was the double walled Bo-11 rather than any of the houses. I hope that insulation helped them survive as long as they did, and isn't mother nature amazing that they can figure that out!
PS I don't know how the people who feed live crickets to reptiles manage them. I think I'll be catching loose crickets in my house for the next 3 months!
Lucas Landlord
Right before the weather went so bad we had seen a few martins but did not think any were staying here. On the 2nd or 3rd day of bad weather I saw several on my porches and tried to flip crickets for them but they were having no part of that. I put some on the porches after they left, but I've never had any luck getting them to eat dead crickets except to feed them to babies during extreme drought.
The next day I brought the house down mid day to check and flushed a single martin from a Bo-11. When I looked in the gourd, it was crammed full of martins. So we decided we had to bring them in. Later in the day, I went back out and the singleton was in the gourd and I managed to get him too, so that says just how cold and weak they were.
So for longer than I planned we kept them and fed them, first by stuffing with eggs/mealworms/crickets, then by getting them to catch live crickets in their boxes (we had to wait for some crickets to arrive to try that) and eventually getting them to eat dead crickets off the bottom of the container. We considered taking them to rehab but simply could not get there and they were doing well, so we just kept going. Every day we thought, tomorrow we can liberate them and every day the forecast just kept pushing back.
So after last night there were no more supercold temps predicted and sun predicted today, and we knew today would be the day. As I waited for it to warm up a little an entire flock of new martins appeared and started checking out the houses so I knew the time had come.
We had one pair and 4 bachelor ASY males and they were very happy to go join the group. I hope they will come back here and teach the others how to each dead crickets off the floor, so the next time something like this happens we'll be able to help them.
Noteworthy that they were all 6 huddled in the south facing gourd on the pole which was the double walled Bo-11 rather than any of the houses. I hope that insulation helped them survive as long as they did, and isn't mother nature amazing that they can figure that out!
PS I don't know how the people who feed live crickets to reptiles manage them. I think I'll be catching loose crickets in my house for the next 3 months!
Lucas Landlord
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Sharon - Central TX
- Posts: 696
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 9:20 pm
- Location: Central TX
- Martin Colony History: All Troyer Horizontal Gourds with Conley Entrances
PMCA Member since 2004
Hopefully the coldest of the weather is over for Texas. Several martins arrived Thursday evening and the temperature was around 23 degrees the next morning. We checked all the gourds yesterday (Friday) and they were empty so hopefully they all survived. Yesterday more martins showed up and due to warmer weather and winds out of the south, we should see more today.
The next few days are supposed to bring warmer temperatures.
This has been one crazy late February and March weatherwise. In my twelve years as a Martin landlord, I have never experienced anything like it
Sharon
The next few days are supposed to bring warmer temperatures.
This has been one crazy late February and March weatherwise. In my twelve years as a Martin landlord, I have never experienced anything like it
Sharon
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teridickinson
- Posts: 227
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:05 am
- Location: Texas/Lake Palestine
Back in the day, my martins used to arrive spring break week, (this upcoming week) and we never had these super cold weather issues. Last few years they gave been earlier and earlier, this year was the earliest ever and this weather was unbelievable. Sadly I'd say all the ASY's in North Texas died except for those being fed. I saw on the news last night we had precip every day for 12 days, 6th longest streak on record and on many of those days the precip was sleet, freezing rain or snow on and the days it was just rain, the temps were in the mid 30's. Very sad but at least the next wave is here. The newbies I saw this AM were mostly males but I saw at least one female and hopefully more on their way.