Orphan martins find parent

[Rick H]

martin colony 2022.jpg (172.33 KiB) Viewed 1288 times

I put the fledgling martin on the feeding platform, 6 ft above the ground and he sat there for a while. I replaced him/her twice over about 3-4 hours, and while I was getting my step stool to help put him in a nest cavity, a hawk/falcon grabbed him. I paused to water the garden. But the main story started Friday when I put two nestling jumpers, roughly 18-20 days old, in gourd #3 of the Gemini gourd rack. Putting them there was a guess based on their age and my weekly nest checks. Saturday they were on the lawn, so this time I put them in gourd #2 but they jumped again. I searched my nest check records again for a potential compartment or gourd they might have come from. Nothing was obvious. Next, I examined all 66 compartments in the colony for compelling evidence to locate their nest. In frustration, I put them in wooden House #3 compartments 4 and 7. Sunday morning I found them on the grass near the martin houses. So I put them on the eggshell feeding platform for 4 hours while I mowed the lawn. They kept jumping off and ended up in the grass, unable to fly. They had no visible parasites but were wet from the morning dew on the grass, and their fat bellies were dirty. There were no other obvious health problems; it seemed they were just not old enough to fly. I washed their bellies and tail feathers by dipping them in a glass of warm water and dried them with paper towels. I put them back on the feeding platform. I continued mowing the grass and while on the lawnmower, I noticed a fully black adult martin on the platform with the two nestlings showing them how to fly. One young bird repeatedly jumped off and I replaced him/her. As I approached on the mower the adult martin would leave, go over to the Gemini gourd rack and then return to the babies as I moved away from them. He did this repeatedly. Several times I deliberately forced him to leave with the noise from the mower and tracked him to gourd #20 on the rack. It contained a dirty, empty nest that during the last nest check, the previous Tuesday, had contained 5 babies that were 20 days old. It was a nest I had not changed then because I mistakenly thought the nestlings were 27 days old and nearly ready to fly. Although I was reluctant to put the babies into a nest with no nest mates, I replaced the old nest material with clean, dry white pine needles and popped them in anyway, since this gourd most likely contained their nest. Hopefully their missing nest mates had fledged and were still in the area with a parent. Could this adult martin have been calling to get the two nestlings to come to him from the other nests where I had incorrectly placed them? It seems like that might explain these birds’ behaviors. Monday morning they were still in the nest where they had been placed and were being fed actively by an all-black martin. On Tuesday there was one baby martin about 27 days old in gourd #20 during the next nest check. I’d like to think it was a bird I had replaced.
Anyone else experienced this?
Rick H

[Dave Reynolds]

.. Rich ,, Welcome to the forum, great to have you here with us. —. Sounds like a great story.. It seems like you did the right thing since the Male Martin started to feed them.. I lost a female one year where she had four eggs. I took her four eggs. I put two of her eggs in a nest of three eggs and the other two eggs in another nest of three. The timing must have been just right because all four eggs hatched in the other nests and all fledged.. Her egg’s incubation time must have been very close to the incubation time of the other nest’s eggs. All turn out well,,
Good luck in your 2024 season.

Dave