Updates from everyone?

[brent]

Sorry to hear of all the losses. Just checked my houses and found one dead male. Total dead are 5 males and 1 female. Of course I have no idea the real numbers. After today it will be warmer. What birds are left are out feeding. I'll watch and count as they come in this evening. What an experience. Great appreciation and admiration to our northern landlords who persevere this often and never give up.

[hotdawgtx]

Hi everyone.

I am new to the forum and live West of Wimberley. I have been a landlord for the past 14 yrs and have grown my colony each year. I currently have 3 12 gourd houses and was so excited to see the return of the 1st 7 martins. Last year we fledged 167 martins and was planning another 12 gourd system. That is, until this front hit. I had learned to flick crickets and meal worm and even had hand warmers for them.

Bottom line: All 7 that returning are dead. I pulled 5 out the houses and 2 are missing. I do not think there is any chance of the sweet birds surviving this inclement weather. Now I am worried about colony return and tat is the reason I joined the forum so I could keep check on birds further south.

It is a heart breaker, no doubt, for everyone. I look forward to reading your posts. BTW, we hit 7 degrees here.

Karen

[Evan337]

So far I’ve lost 9 males and 2 females. Fed another 500 crickets today. Martins looks a lot better. The sun being out helped. I’m down to around 18 martins now and expect I will lose another couple tonight. Hopefully tomorrow they will be able to feed on their own.

On another note, did some posts in this thread get removed? At one point this thread was 3-4 pages and it went back to a single page this morning. Just curious.

[brent]

Just 5 of about 15-16 birds returned this evening and they don't look good. I cleaned all the compartments and put 18 hour hand warmers. Doesn't look good though.
Brent

Evan, your right. Posts apparantly gone?

[brent]

Hey, wait. I just saw several more fly in. Maybe 10 or more. Some look more energetic than others. Praise God! I am so happy to see it. I'll be out early tomorrow to get a better count. Yeah! I'll keep you posted.

[SSMartin]

PMCA per there facebook said they will remove any post that discuss capturing martins/bringing them inside. Someone probably reported some posts.

On a side note I am sorry to hear of all the losses. Being in FL I am not impacted and have several birds now too many for me to count and the thought of losing even one would bother me. Stay positive I am sure there are still ASY birds arriving as weather improves and many subadults to follow.

[deancamp]

If that is the case a lot of good information was lost. Disappointing :(

[Evan337]

PMCA per there facebook said they will remove any post that discuss capturing martins/bringing them inside. Someone probably reported some posts.

On a side note I am sorry to hear of all the losses. Being in FL I am not impacted and have several birds now too many for me to count and the thought of losing even one would bother me. Stay positive I am sure there are still ASY birds arriving as weather improves and many subadults to follow.

I thought that may be the case. I’m not on Facebook so I didn’t see it. Seems rather heartless to watch a creature we all care so much about die without trying to help. I know there are laws and the intent of those laws are to protect and preserve migratory songbirds. I have time, money, and energy invested saying I’m doing the same.

[Thomabear]

A little update from my earlier post:
All of the birds that left mid morning returned except for one. The high today was 52 and I was a little worried when it became much later than their usual return. Suddenly they showed up and I was able to watch them feeding in the area for several minutes before they took to their nests for the night. They had an increase in energy so I'm hopeful they will make the night. I'll get an accurate head count when they gather on their porches in the morning.

[C.C.Martins]

Brent great news!!!!
Checked my gourds, all of them. No dead or alive martins. Doesn't mean they made it. They were roughed up. Looked through my yard and neighbors, nada.

Working 12 hour days to assist the refinery ops, since this started, lots of prep work before a start up is attempted so can't be here to watch the skies Dang it. Only thing I can hope is they went elsewhere for safety and they packed into mr barrows or Louise chambers colonies gourds, shoulder to shoulder with other martins. If they did they will be back to nest.

Well the migration is just beginning, young birds will be looking for spots to nest, so I'm going to look to that. I have a huge list of lessons learned, tips and techniques to draw from now. All to take care of these guys.

[brent]

Hi everyone,
Finally defrosting here. It did freeze last night but today will be in the mid 50's. Martins are out on the porches soaking in the warm sun. They look tired and weak but it might be that they're cold, too. I counted 20. Yes, 20! More must have arrived during the bitter cold. Tomorrow will be an even better day.
Brent

[brent]

Found one more dead male today. Total found, 6 males and one female. Weather much improved!
Brent

[PMDavid]

Brent ,im so happy for you like they were my own. I still have the one female and she is doing great ! I think in the morning will be the day to fly the coop for her,the bad cold is gone and we have a week of good weather per say ahead. One rain day and otherwise warm and hopefully bug filled. I really am glad for your bird count.

[brent]

Hey PMDavid. Good to hear about the little female. Should be great weather. Wish I could be there to see it. Here's to a new day! I write this as I watch the martins return from a good day of feeding.
Brent

[PMDavid]

Man I’m really ,really uplifted to hear about all your birds. I wanted to add after I read your earlier posts the wife picked out about 30-40 live meal worms and I went o go deposit them on the food tray and she told me to get a new thing of bluebell outa the freezer in there when I go. So I go in there and put the worms on the tray and she was already looking at me from the whole of the gourd,and as soon as I dumped em down she eased out and jumped down onto the tray about a foot from my head and was just looking at me and eating worms . I just stood there and she just kept lookin at me and eating like it was nothing. Pretty cool. I opened the freezer real easy got the ice cream out and eased back ,she never moved. She ain’t starving that’s the third time today she’s been fed. 60-70 hydrated ones early this morning,50-60 the wife gave her at noon and then those this evening,little pig. Any how in the morning at 7:30 she’s going out ,back in the wild. I hope she stays,but is free to go.

[brent]

What a great story and happy ending. Touching.
She'll never forget y'all.
Brent

[TS Wilson]

Yesterday I removed 4 dead birds and this evening I witnessed 14 come in right at dusk. I was about 50 feet from my house / gourds trying to keep an eye for a coopers hawk that I'd seen earlier. Had 5 come in and land on the roof of the house instead of darting quickly into a hole. I just knew the resident hawk would nail one. They remained 5 minutes or so and then left only to return a few minutes later with 9 more birds. I was able to video them to get an accurate count. Don't know where these came from since the weather has been horrific until today. Temps hit 56 and I suppose all were able to feed really well. This gang must be really tough!

[brent]

Terry you are right! This is a tough bunch indeed. Some of my Martin's earlier today were landing on the ground to feed. They'd sit there and when an insect rose up they grabbed it. Don't know if anyone else experienced seeing that but I did. Amazing birds!
Brent

[mwren]

Hey Brent and my other southern landlord friends: So glad to see you finally get a break in the weather, and you have birds that may survive this terrible 10 days to two weeks! As your birds begin to move around as they warm up, now is probably the best time to be flipping meal worms. It can be a long process to teach your birds that you are trying to help them, so invest in at least 500 worms , and spend time in and around your colony flipping mealies at your martins. Stay at it long enough until you have that first bird who chases down a meal worm. Once that light goes on in that first bird's brain, the other birds will see where the "free" meal is being served, and others will join in!! Feed them as often as you can! Besides saving your birds by teaching them how to accept supplemental feeding, you will also have provided yourself with a way to tell when birds arrive next season if they are yours!! The birds that you have taught to catch those meal worms in previous seasons will immediately go after the flipping when you start up !!! Don't give up, Don't ever give up!!
Once they have learned to take advantage of "flipping", they will never forget the lessons ! Good luck and hang in there!

Bird

[brent]

Hey Bird,
Thanks for the message. I'm going to order some tomorrow. What size? Or can I use the dried ones rehydrated? What do you use. I'd like to start as soon as possible. I can get either one. Can get crickets,too.
Brent