They took it!

[brent]

https://youtu.be/Q1c-kSDjovc?si=tUhXaVXY0AsuCf4r

Finally I was able to get the birds to take flipped food!!! They ate all 1000 crickets, all the June Beetles I had and a lot of meal worms. Tomorrow will be a better day for them to hunt. High upper 40s and Saturday even better. Finally!!

[Mstan]

That is a wonderful sight. Great job

[Thomas Maddox]

Very very well done!

[Jeffc]

Great Job Brent. That gives us all confidence to keep trying. I wish all of you in the cold weather the best of luck. My Martins won’t arrive until April here in Iowa but they are visiting all your sites along the way. Take care.

Jeff.

[Martintown33]

That’s awesome Brent! Great accomplishment! What do you think was the trigger that got them to go for it? Congrats!
Rob

[flyin-lowe]

Its a great feeling the first time. I remember flipping for a few minutes and noticed one male was followed two or three in a row with his head and eyes. So I went a little closer just flipping them so they arched about eye level from one side to the other. He grabbed a few in a row and then the rest joined in.

[Phil01]

Great job Brent! That is awesome news!! Congratulations sir. Your Martins will be fine!
Phil

[brent]

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Thanks everyone! It is a great feeling. To answer your question Rob I was going to try one more time today as I planned. Before that though I decided to walk around the houses to see if I saw any thing blocking the entrances (taking the advice of forum friends). That’s when I noticed many of the birds were warming themselves on my roof (picture). The thought came to me to flip crickets on to the roof next to them. So I did. Then one of the birds flew to a cricket and ate it, and then again and another. Then one took one in the air. And that was the beginning. I went inside and thawed a bunch very quickly. I stood under the eve of the house where some could see me but most couldn’t and I flipped up into the air and it was like wow!!! I started before noon and didn’t finish until around 5:30. I was flipping one at a time then decided to try a few at a time and before I knew it I was out of crickets and beetles. I still have a few meal worms left over. They wiped me out and it was great! Blistered my finger flipping (used a plastic spoon). Well worth it though. So, the combination of them being really hungry and them warming on the roof worked for me. It gave me a chance to use the platform feeding technique (roof as a platform) as my starting point to get them to take the food in the air. All I know is it work. Tomorrow the high upper 40s to 50 degrees. I don’t have any more crickets or beetles so I hope they go off to feed.

[C.C.Martins]

Brent,
Simply wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done!!!!!!!!

[Martintown33]

Hi Brent. When I saw you by the roof I had a feeling that’s how it occurred. Great job. I think I will try flipping in a way that the crickets land on my patio roof and see if that does anything. They are eating crickets I’m putting in their compartments I do believe. They are all gone the next day when I check. I reloaded yesterday and will check in a bit to see if they are all gone again. Congrats on your great success! Great job!
Rob

[Thomabear]

Great job Brent! It gets so much easier when they start feeding. I trained my colony last year but didn't have a lot to offer them, so I wasn't sure if it stuck in their memory. Surprisingly, this year they took to feeding right away. What a memory they have. When they see me go out with that yellow bowl they know. Just fed 1000 large crickets, a few on porches but mostly flipping and will do more at about 5:00 after this meal goes down, LOL, they are so full it looks like they need a nap.

Rob, keep it going and I promise they will figure it out. Keep flipping until you can't flip any more then keep flipping, LOL. Like everyone said all it takes is one bird to taste a fresh cricket and it's game on. Good luck my friend!

Here's a couple picks of some very happy martins after a good meal.

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[Martintown33]

Awesome Thomabear! That’s a lot of martins on the ground. I’ve never seen more than a few on the ground. Amazing work! Congrats. I tried flipping this morning but no takers as usual. Then I lowered and checked the housing compartments and all the crickets I put in the front rooms, yesterday, were gone again. Maybe they’re full from eating those crickets to be interested in the flipped ones. I don’t know. Either way, they’re getting fed.
Rob

[C.C.Martins]

Thomabear,
Wow!!! Simply great, that is awesome. Love it, flip until you can't and flip some more. Noon went home to feed em, flipped alot, then noticed a martin peeking over the edge of the roof, actually chirped at me. Took a peek, lots sitting on the roof. Tried Brent's trick, grabbed a handful and tossed them up on the roof, holy smokes! Forget flipping, threw handfuls.

Oh, what is all that green stuff they are resting on? Is it safe? We don't have any green down here. Is grass supposed to be green? Lol!

[Thomas Maddox]

This is good to see(and hear). Are they eating on the ground?

[Thomabear]

Yea, seeing so many on the ground is something I never saw before. I had just mowed the grass a couple days ago before the rain which exposed greener grass so maybe they think summer is coming. Ha Ha! Yes, we're starting to cut crass over here with this crazy hot spell/cold spell weather. As I type this, there's still a few on the ground right around the pole sporadically picking up a few dropped crickets... Very un-martin like for sure...But who knows what they're thinking. I haven't had any hawks so far so maybe they're comfortable. Anyway, like you Tom, I ditched the spoon and started throwing a few at a time by hand. Very much quicker that way...The flyers caught almost everything, and the ground dwellers flew upwards to snatch a few and even ate a few on the ground. It's quite a rewarding experience having them buzz so close to your head. Once again, I'm overpopulated so I expect when nesting starts it will be chaos as they try to claim real estate.

[C.C.Martins]

Whoa wait, they were eating on the ground??!! That is awesome!
They are comfortable, that is too neat. Good timing on cutting the grass!
Keep that picture forever and perhaps send to PMCA for their magazine. Supplemental feeding is going to be a "hot" topic, many, many landlords and birds not used to the arctic cold are going through hell right now.

[Martintown33]

Thomabear is going to turn martins into ground feeders!!! lol.. simply amazing behavior. It’s good to see that we’re all having luck feeding our martins. Whether in compartments, on roofs, flipping or even on the ground!! (I can’t get over that!). Just goes to show persistence pays off. Great work to everyone. It’s been a long road but it looks like we’re over the hump.
Congrats to all for your hard work, persistence , and helping these great birds survive..I’d go into a foxhole with yall anytime.
Rob

[brent]

Hey Thomabear that is awesome. You know I counted well over 60 martins yesterday and today. I’m wondering could it be by chance that some of these birds are on their way to the north and may have been trained to accept flipped insects by one of our northern landlords. Just a thought since I never had any luck until yesterday when I had so many sitting on my roof for warmth and to get out of the wind. Just wondering. Nice healthy birds you have there. Good luck. Need anything let me know. Brent

[Martintown33]

Brent. I was thinking the same thing. Some of the birds you have possibly could be on their way north and were accustomed to flipping. Either way , your persistence paid off. If you wouldn’t have gone out that one more time, it wouldn’t have happened. And now your birds are trained. Might be good to keep reinforcing their training after this weather event , as I mentioned in another post. Maybe once or twice a week during the season. Keep them trained up for the next weather event, which will eventually come again.
Congrats again,
Rob

[Thomabear]

Very good and valid point y'all bring up about food trained migrating martins. Anything is possible and I believe all the birds I'm seeing aren't just mine. Whether the visitors helped to train my birds (they were taking food last year) or visa-versa it's a win either way. For the life of me I still can't understand why I'm seeing so many martins on the ground. At first, I was thinking they were seeking ground warmth but it's now 46 degrees this morning and I just counted 17 on the ground. Very strange and a head scratcher for sure... My plan going forward is to just monitor numbers and offer treats on the rainy days. Being retired I interact with my martins every day so monitoring things is easy. They definately have grown to trust me and I can't say enough how rewarding that is. Bad news for this morning is a Coopers hawk showed up, likely due to the increased bird count and activity. Game on!