Unexpected departure of Martins

Cymbalariadave · Mon Mar 14, 2016 6:47 pm

My first scouts were reported on Feb 21. Between then and last week, about 24 Martins had arrived and were seemingly at home in my gourds. On Friday (3/11), we left for a weekend with friends in North Ga. On our return on Sunday afternoon, I saw no birds around. Still, no Martins around. This is a first in my 14+or- years as landlord. I would like to think they will come back or more will come. But I fear that there has been some predator event that sent them away. I have found no evidence of voilence but am not sure how to rule out a hawk or owl attack. Any comments?

Larry A Kronemeyer · Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:59 pm

How awful. Every landlords nightmare. Hope someone is able to shed some light in this. Keep us posted.

taxidermy lady · Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:03 am

Praying they come back for you! If there's no evidence you'll never know, it stays a mystery! Please keep us posted because this helps others. Good luck

MichaelH · Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:18 am

That is a real shame for you hope they all come back and bring more friends with them ,sorry to hear about this ,must be real saddening ,keep positive and hopefully they will return.

Gauxt · Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:18 am

Wow that is devastating. No kids with pellet guns around neighborhood? A game camera would be useful in situations like this, possibly shed some light. Hope they return.

Tue Mar 15, 2016 11:00 am

Did you have predator guards in place on the poles? It seems unlikely that a hawk or owl could have run off all your birds in 2 days.

Emil Pampell-Tx · Tue Mar 15, 2016 1:55 pm

My guess is a racoon or a snake. Very doubtful, but an owl is a possibility. Its nearly impossible to say because we do not know what kind of setup you have such as predator guard, type of predator guard, depth of cavities, type of owl protection, wire cage around the housing, etc.

Cymbalariadave · Tue Mar 15, 2016 2:40 pm

Great news ...... at least for now. Got up this morning to see about 12 Martins flying around the colony and coming out of the gourds. I truly hope this means that they were just out for the weekend, same as we were.

Cymbalariadave · Tue Mar 15, 2016 2:47 pm

Details on my setup:
two 15' poles with 12 gourds each.
no cages or other protection on entrances.
stovepipe baffle on each pole.
Troyer starling trap about 75' away.

taxidermy lady · Tue Mar 15, 2016 4:57 pm

Glad they are back! Good luck!

BW Fowler · Thu Mar 17, 2016 3:38 pm

Yes, good to hear that many are still around. As mentioned by the forum admin, I would think it would be very unusual to have so many birds just gone in such a short time, especially since you have predator guards on both poles. Maybe they took a long weekend vacation at the nearest lake to dine on the local cuisine?

Hey, you never know!

Good luck this year,
BW