In central Texas w/17 birds I need to get into active nests

[TexasMatt]

I am in Buda, TX in central Texas south 20-30 minutes from the city of Austin. We have a drought that has hit hard in Central Texas effecting Purple Martin Colonies in the region. The farthest away I have heard is San Antonio area but I am sure its spans much further. Most all of my colony is gone. There are 3 nests left with only one active one left with a parent struggling to feed 4 pinkies whose eyes are not open yet.
The rest have fledged (though I suspect a very little number actually did) and the rest of them have probably perished. The commulative effect of drought does not take long to bring death. The deer in our area suffer as well and Im sure many other bird species and animals

I now have 17 babies in my possession on beef heart, live crickets, freeze dried crickets and some " gourmet grass hoppers" . About a dozen of them, maybe a few more are developmentally ready to fledge. After a 7-9 days or so of feeding, many are getting rowdy and active. Some flap their wings in the box and noise level of them has gone up with more energy. All (with exception of maybe 2-3 newer jumpers) readily take food with voracious and ravenous appetites which tells me that their health and vitality are returning. I suspect atleast 10 can fly but they can't do it without directions from adults Martins.

If I have to attempt a release at the big roast in Austin which I think 75% chance of death, I will because I have no other choice. All of them with exception to one, appear to be at or very near to fledging age and development. Sooner I make a move on it, the better for them.

Might there be any Purple Martin keepers in North Texas area( DFW area), East Texas, or the Texas coast that has faired better for rain this year with active nests still attended by parents that would consider me making a drive out to you to plug my birds into your active nests if you have a fair size colony of active nests with parents that can feed babies that are within a 7 to 10 days of fledging?
Some of these puppies are ready now and I may try to release them to adults visiting the colony area in the morning time this week some time. Chuckspurplemartinpage.com/feeding.htm suggests this but plugging them in to active gourds would be the best way to do it if possible.


Any other suggestions of experience on how to release them without parents into a group of adult birds would be helpful too. Does Steve Kroenke from LA still post here?

Thanks Matt.

[Whippy]

Matt,

You missed mine by about a week or week and a half. Otherwise I'd say come on up.

Sorry bout that.

You might look for a rehabber who has baby martins in house who is about to release them. They might have a process they go through when it's time to let them go. Just a thought.

Coolwhips

[BillieJR]

Wow - Kudos to you for keeping those babies alive. Congratulations. I hope you can figure out a plan to make sure they have a happy ending to this story. Good luck!

[Whippy]

Matt,

Did you ever find a place to release the babies?

If not, I found a place that has hundreds of Martins every evening for about 45 minutes then they move off. It's actually at a high school and the martins congregate there in a huge flock. I was there Thursday night watching my sons baseball game. Martins were landing on the light poles, new construction and on the cables used to hold up the netting. Actually was pretty impressive to see all the fledglings.

Fossil Ridge High school.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fossi ... 97.2962414

They are at the baseball field and south of it on the construction site.

Coolwhips

[TexasMatt]

Matt,

You missed mine by about a week or week and a half. Otherwise I'd say come on up.

Sorry bout that.

You might look for a rehabber who has baby martins in house who is about to release them. They might have a process they go through when it's time to let them go. Just a thought.

Coolwhips

Hi Whippy,


I appreciate your help.This is no need now. I had released 14 of the 17 to a group of Martins here at our place. At the time, the two choices I had was our place or the big roost in Austin. Many were ready to go phyically and capable of flight and getting them out was critical. Rehabilitating 14 of them to health to fly was successful and I watched them fly.
More then likely they flew to their deaths. We went through approximately 4 packages of
beef heart, almost 5,000 crickets, freeze dried crickets, gourmet grasshoppers.. it wasn't cheap. It was exhausting but we tried our best and didn't take the easy road which was to turn our backs on them and........... "Let nature take it course" so to speak.

Without the critical end game player needed in these circumstances called Purple Martin parents and active nests, its probably mostly a losing battle in the end. If we try to help though we are overwhemed knowing it's unkindly turnout in the end, we live up to our confession of caring and compassion for them even when its hard and inconveinant. I am grateful to God for how He created them and for allowing us to enjoy them hopefully in proper biblical context.

[TexasMatt]

Matt,

Did you ever find a place to release the babies?

If not, I found a place that has hundreds of Martins every evening for about 45 minutes then they move off. It's actually at a high school and the martins congregate there in a huge flock. I was there Thursday night watching my sons baseball game. Martins were landing on the light poles, new construction and on the cables used to hold up the netting. Actually was pretty impressive to see all the fledglings.

Fossil Ridge High school.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fossi ... 97.2962414

They are at the baseball field and south of it on the construction site
Coolwhips

I think I quoted the wrong post from you above. hahaha. we had 1 nest left with 2 babies WITH PARENTS so I left them in place. I
was trying to supplimental feed them in the gourd after 8:00pm to help the parents feeding struggles during the day. I wasn't going to move them with parents still present. It was a friggin 105 yesterday and 107 today. I went up tonight with a latter and they were gone.

Jumped I am thinking and if so, to their deaths. I searched the grounds and found a pile of what appears to be fresh feathers up aganist the nearest fence line. If these feathers are fresh, it would constitute atleast 1 bird and be them since they were the only ones left eatin by a raccoon which would mean they jumped after dark. We had several do this because we checked the grounds all day. We wouldn't have missed them during the day in those areas. The coons would get em during the night. So now my colony is over this year and it didn't end well Im afraid.

2011 2.0.

[C.C.Martins]

Damn, sorry.

Nope you didn't turn your back or a blind eye to them that is sure. They and you were battling this blasted heat and lack of food.
Did what you could and yes its exhausting. You did your best....59 days of over 100 degrees....
I suspect we all lost many more than we know, in fact the "number fledged" iv been reporting seems to me as being inaccurate....the assumption is they made it. Yet the dead i found were fully feathered ready to go but starved chicks. I think I'll change all that.

I'm glad this season has passed, looking forward to 2023 but a bit wary of it as well.