Need more females!!!

[detioh11]

I have three nesting pair this year, up from one last year. The beginning of June I had an additional ASY male show up. He has built a nest with green leaves, but has failed to find a female. The last couple weeks a SY male or two would show up once in a while. As of the last two days I have had 4 SY males around pretty much all day. So that makes 8 males and 3 females. The poor females are being harassed like crazy trying to feed their chicks. I saw one of the SY males go in one of the nests and as he was trying to come out the ASY was pecking at his head like crazy. I think the chicks are safe because they are 22 days on the oldest nest down to 14 on the youngest. I think they would be hard for them to carry out. I sure hope they don't interfere with fledging. On one hand I am so thankful to have so many birds around. It makes me wonder what next year will bring. I just hope they don't hurt each other. I also had a hawk fly over yesterday, and two of the martins were dive bombing it until it was out of sight. It was terrifying.

Dennis

[flyin-lowe]

SY males are definitely know to cause problems. Some just harass, others will actually kill young. I am guessing it is going to be too late in the year to find any new females.