The weather finally broke April 14th & things were looking good. More Martins had arrived & nest building started April 25th. It was short lived. The weather turned cold again on April 28th with temps too low to find food & we had rain every day for the next 4 days.
On May 1st it was raining & 48 degrees at noon. By now my colony had grown to 22 Martins. At 7 PM I had an extra 11 Martins arrive all at once. They were exhausted, cold, wet & very hungry. They looked beat with wings drooping. I flipped crickets & some of them joined in with my colony. They spent the night. Sadly 2 of the Females from the extra 11 did not survive. The next morning the 9 that survived left, pushed on North. The next several days the temps were warm enough to find food, but we had passing rain showers & high winds. I flipped 300-400 crickets per day to keep them going.
Finally nest building resumed May 11th. Temps remained on the cool side for severals day with passing rain showers. We got 2 days of temps on the upper 60's to low 70's then back to upper 40's low 50's dropping to below freezing at night. It was a pain trying to keep the Martins all feed & warm during this weather rollercoaster. I have gone thru an easy 6000 crickets this season so far.
My Alfa ASY Female was attacked in her nest twice in one day by a young starling. She survived, but never laid eggs. We found bloody poops in her nest, on the balcony & the sidewalk. She went missing several days later. I assume she died :(.
First egg was laid May 23rd & a couple SY Males had arrived. By now I had 13 pair. May 24th the weather changed & temps hit the 90's! for the next 5 days. Early June temps dropped to low 50's day time for a few days then back to the 90's again. It's central PA & our weather is like a rollercoaster here in spring. It can be 90 one day & in the 40's or 50's the next day or even lower with snow.
Egg laying was going well. Nest check on June 11th revealed 15 nests/58 eggs laid.
I had neck surgery June 13th & was away 2 days. Upon arriving home we did a nest check & found a ASY Female dead in her nest. She was laying across the entrance hole just inside the nest. She had 5 eggs due to hatch soon. So I moved them. Put 4 in one nest that had 2 eggs, one of which was bad. The other egg I put in a nest of 5 eggs. They all hatched
. I came home from surgery to find 15 newly hatched chicks.June 18th Myself & a former board member held a Martin event. 9 people attended & had a hands on experience.
Fast forward to today. My colony counts to date:
15 pair/nests plus 3 extra SY Males. Minus the loss of 2 females. 14 nests with eggs. 60 eggs laid - 22 eggs bad = 38 hatched. 2 chicks died, leaving 36 very fat healthy looking chicks. I have 3 nests with chicks that are starting to peek out. Blowfly larva & mites have been low this year. We changed all nests out around days 4-6.
As far as I know I am the only one with an active colony, other than a couple on Amish farms, in my county. It's a lot of work keeping them going, but so well worth it. It won't be long they will start to fledge & then migration will start & they will be gone until next spring.
Toy in PA
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