To flip or not to flip?

[Martintown33]

It’s drizzling here in se Louisiana, with a cold snap expected tomorrow. It doesn’t look like my martins are able to feed today and most likely not tomorrow. I tried flipping crickets to my martins this afternoon, but they kept getting spooked and circling , then landing back on the housing perches. I would try again. They would get spooked and repeat. I spend lots of time outside with them, but something about the crickets arching over them was spooking them. They weren’t accepting any crickets as I’ve been unable to train them so far,. So I wondered, am I doing more harm than good, causing them to burn energy flying off and back, repeatedly, instead of just letting them rest and conserve energy. Since they weren’t accepting the crickets, I decided it would be better to stop, and just let them rest. Up to today, it’s been good weather and they’ve been feeding, so they’re probably not very hungry yet..
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob

[Thomas Maddox]

I'm no expert, but from what I've read, you have to catch them at almost the perfect time meaning that they have to be just hungry enough. Even then, they still may not be receptive. I am 1 for 1 on feeding crickets, but it was just either luck or some trained PMs that happened to stop by my house heading north. The one thing I did was to actually try to hit the PM with the crickets. The closer it is to them, the more likely the reflexive bite. It should be warming up in the next day or so, so my guess is that they'll be fine. Either way, nice of you to try!

[C.C.Martins]

Try flipping them parallel to them too. I never had any luck flipping right at them or over them. If its disturbing them, try another tack, don't need them wasting energy now.
Give it a shot, ours aren't interested at the moment, ill try again tomorrow.

[Martintown33]

Yes, I did that Tom. At first , I was flipping at about a 45 degree angle. Arching close to and right over their heads. I was concentrating on one male. He was following the cricket with his head, as it arched over him. I’ve been told that’s a good sign when they follow it with their eyes like that. But then they spooked again and flew. Twice, the cricket landed right on his beak, but that spooked him.. I tried flipping from the side, as you mentioned, for a while, before they spooked again. That’s when I decided to stop. Im sure they’re not hungry enough, yet, as the weather has been warm lately. Saturday will be cold but Sunday will be a high of 59 degrees, so I think they’ll be fine. They did get to feed for a few hours in the late afternoon, today, as the rain stopped, and a little bit of sun came out.
Thanks,
Rob

[C.C.Martins]

Probably so. Not that hungry yet.

[Ed Pace]

Hi Rob, when you think your Martin’s are hungry enough you might try this, get a long pole and tape a Dixie cup to it. I use a collapsible golf ball retriever and put a Dixie cup in the hole and you can use that pole to place some crickets or mealworms which I use mostly on the perches ,that’ll sometimes get one of them interested if one of them starts the rest of them may pick it up. I’ve been feeding my birds for many years like that and that actually works better than tossing them ,at least for my birds. Good luck. Ed.

[Martintown33]

Hi Ed .. thanks for the suggestion. But unfortunately, I’ve tried that many times last year and twice this year. I put their favorite food, dragon flies ( I caught and froze about 75 of them last summer) , on their porches and top of the house. Last year, I tried putting crickets and live mealworms on their porches too. I even tried putting them in the compartments themselves.. no luck with any of those attempts.. but I’ll keep trying..
Thanks and good luck,
Rob

[C.C.Martins]

Yes, its important to keep trying, it just takes one to go and you have them.
Keep after them Rob, ill be out tomorrow after this blast to feed em, or try to. I think they ate pretty good, early on.
However we had 15 migrants come in today, looking cold and tired. They packed into the house, got rebuffed but kept trying and 6 to 7 made it in. Rest took off.
Ill do what I can.

[Martintown33]

Good luck with the migrants Tom and your feeding tomorrow!
Rob

[Thomas Maddox]

Great idea Ed! I will put this in the memory bank!

[C.C.Martins]

Had some luck!! The transient Martins came back and as usual packed the house. Occupied of course, and since they were sitting on the porches, got a bunch of crickets and flipped, 50 or so in the grass and on the roof, wasted....then one took a cricket and it was on. Flying all over; lots of crickets landed on the roof, and looked up to see a martin looking at me, I straightened up and 12 martins were picking up the crickets! So started flipping them on the roof, must have gone through 500.
They ate very well.

[Martintown33]

Awesome Tom! Do you mean the crickets were on the roof of your home?
Congrats!
Rob

[deancamp]

That's good news Tom! Hopefully it wasn't just the transients feeding and yours are hooked. Got your breakthrough, keep us posted going forward.

[C.C.Martins]

Well,
Lots were taken in the air. Sorry should have been more clear. Thats how it started, I flipped parallel to them about 6 feet off the house. One female jumped after it and then the males. Lots of crickets were ignored but the birds took flight and got a whole bunch. The missed crickets were landing on the roof, (of our house, not theirs) grass etc. when I noticed the martin on the roof eating crickets, I started flipping up and made sure they landed on the roof. They would fly from the house and land up there or come in and eat.
I just kept cricket's in the air, shoot and reload, repeat. Sometimes three at a time.
It was straight migrants, I totally missed the residents return. Dont know how!
I checked all the cavities earlier for dead or trapped birds; everything looked good.
You know how this sort of thing catches, the migrants will teach the residents I guess.
If they move on and I'm sure they will, they have a head start.