Help! Jumpers

[jcassiday]

Young birds about 25-26 days old. Had heavy rain this morning. Decided to do nest check. Nest and birds was exmtreamly wet, decided to transfer birds into clean and dry gourd and place in same location, both are Troyer horizontal with Conley II entrances. When I lowered the nest I had a jumper, caught him and placed him and the other four into the dry gourd. When I raised the rack I had two jumpers . Parents are very upset. Not sure what to do! I can't find the jumpers , if I do not sure what to do with them???

Sorry I done the nest check!!!

Jerry

[bwenger]

Hi Jerry,

Here are some ideas for your jumpers!

Jumpers.
These are birds that jump from the nest at this time of the year and it could be caused from several things. A lack of food from the parents, dirty nests that could have parasites in them, or some physical issue that is keeping them from flying as a normal young would do. Martin parents will slow down and may even stop feeding their young once they get to be around 28-30 days old. They will at times fly around the housing with a nice big dragon fly sticking out of their mouths to get their young to fledge! Just imagine if our kids are 18-20 years old and you stop feeding them and providing them housing! You would be in the County Jail for child abuse, and here Mother Nature has been doing that for centuries. Where did we lose our way!!

One thing that you would want to do is to try and locate what cavity or gourd that young is from so that the nesting material can be replaced, or just replace all of the dirty nests and place that young into a nest with young of comparable age. If it is dirty and wet, you could try and clean it off and dry it off. One thing that I just heard of this weekend was to pick up an old bird cage at a garage sale. The jumper/young martin could be placed in there until he dries off. A hair dryer or even a small electric heater can be placed in front of the bird cage to assist in the drying. You could also try and feed the martin young meal worms, crickets or scrambled eggs to see if he is hungry. This bird cage idea was provided by Duke Snyder of Butler, PA.

Another idea that worked last year for jumpers was from Kathy Easly of Cochranton. She used a large, opaque laundry detergent container and placed the young into that. She then hung the container from the safety bolt that was on there pole, and the other martins were able to hear it, see it and actually fed it until the bird was able to fly out of that container and fledged.

I'll add some more in my next post. Hopefully this helps some.

Bill

[bwenger]

Some more tips.

I found a bucket that was about a 7 or 8 gallon bucket, it's about 4-5 inches taller than a 5 gallon bucket. It works great for the young, even if they are 28-30 days old. The bucket is high enough that they can't jump or fly out of it.

Another thing, take a foam pool noodle, or a piece of foam pipe insulation and cut it to fit your holes, whether round, crescent or whatever. Don't make them too tight. Take some nylon twine, I use a cement layers twine since it is nice and strong, and cut it in about 15' lengths.

If you have done nest checks, you know which gourds or cavities have birds that will possibly fledge. As soon as the house is lowered, stick these pieces of foam into the appropriate holes. Then go about with your nest checks or nest replacements. When I am transferring the young back into the gourds or cavities, I will normally let them go back in through the entrances, so they can learn how to wiggle through them. Once they are all in there, with the foam pieces still in tact, raise the house to its normal position. Wait about 10 minutes or so, and pull out all of the foam pieces. Make sure that none of them break off and keep birds from exiting or entering the holes. I also tie a nail, screw or small eye screw to the end of the string so that on windy days the weight of that keeps the string from flying in the air.

If you are not sure what gourd the jumper came out of, just pick another one that has the same size young and put it in there. If you can, try and pick an ASY parent, since they will be better at caring for the young than a SY male or female.

Hopefully I didn't have too many misspelled words or incomplete thoughts, since I was trying to do this quickly.

Bill

[bwenger]

Jerry, if you can't find the jumpers, hopefully they can make it through the night and the martins will find them in the morning.

Look at this as a learning experience.

Sometimes you have a choice, to lower the house and possibly have a bird or two fledge, or not do the nest check and lose a lot more young due to wet nests, etc.

Bill

[Louise Chambers]

When placing older young, and this is true for most jumpers, they will be older , use the plug and string method to keep them inside the gourd or house when you put them back in and raise the system. Leave the plug in place for as much as 15-20 minutes if they are very skittish.

Plug & string method involves using an old sock, or piece of foam pipe insulation or a rag as a plug to keep nestlings inside. attach a string or cord that is long enough for you to grab hold of after the system is up again. it helps to attach a weight to bottom end of string so it hangs where you can get it, instead of blowing around in wind. the string lets you remove the plug once the nestlings have had time to calm down. the plug should not be jammed into the hole, but placed so a tug will release it without bouncing the gourd around too much. the plug & string method is very helpful for later nest checks - we use it on most nests once young reach 22 days old, and absolutely use it when young reach 24 days old. good idea to make checks of older young quick, and do not touch or handle them.

for jumpers, they will be jittery so give them plenty of time to calm down.

[kehunter]

A somewhat related question.....

Today was earliest possible fledge date for my remaining nestlings. The biggest, strongest one spent most of the day out on the porch, and this afternoon I inadvertently startled him and he took off. Daddy Martin was right there with him, and they flew off together. The fledgling appeared to be flying well with smooth, strong flight characteristics for his first moments in the air. Do I have anything to be worried about? He is at most 26 days old.

[jcassiday]

Thanks to all of you for the advise! All of the babies are gone and the parents seem to be gone. There are still birds in the area and land on the house . I hope the young survive somehow! I cut the grass today and there were bodies or other signs. I hope that I have the opportunity to use the learning experience next year.
Thanks to PMCA for the Forum without it ,not sure where we would gain PM knowledge . Thanks Louse for all you do.

Jerry

[jcassiday]

I guess I should read my message before posting! I ment to say ,no bodies, and I misspelled Louise should know how to spell it cause it was my mothers name

[bwenger]

Kehunter,

Once they fledge, your job is pretty much done. Although you will want to still walk around your colony and check for any feathers or other signs of a possible owl problem. The young will return for several weeks, and sometimes some of them will sit outside the gourds or cavities for the night. This is literally a buffet for a Great Horned Owl. If they are sitting out after dark, see if you can persuade them to get inside for the night.

Good luck with your colony.

Bill

[kehunter]

The bird that I inadvertently "force-fledged" yesterday was back at the house today; later in the afternoon he took off again and apparently encouraged his three nest mates to take their first flight as well.