Suggestions on suplemental Feeding?

[SE Wisc hopefull]

Here in SE Wisc we have had a week of cold and rain, most of my PMs are here only in the morning and then gone all day. Not even sure if they are all still around. I wonder if they are taking a few days off to vacation south of here.

I tried flinging crickets to the remaining and was not very good ... picked up a sling shot and tried that also. Sling shot works good to get them up there, but as soon as I start they freak out and take off for the nearest trees. So I tried setting a few on the ledge of the house and after several days they are still sitting there.

Does this mean they aren't hungry or should I keep trying? Also - anyone watch the youtube videos of Frank Catanzaro? His PMs are totally eating eggs from a porch feeder - is it even remotely possible that they would eat eggs left out if they weren't trained on flinging them first?

[paule]

I will try to take a stab at this. First, it all depends. I have a friend in NE Iowa and his colony is along a river. His are feeding fine. Our colony in central Iowa is surrounded by farm fields and they were starving. We have taught them to feed on the fly as well as platform feeders. Back in the day we could not get them to feed. Only flipping crickets back then. Got a few to eat after they would land on the roof top and would only pick up meal worms we tossed there after pinching the worms head for safety reasons. The worms would still be wriggling giving them an incentive to go after them. It was not a good outcome. Five years later got one adult male to take a cricket on the fly. They all learned to eat after that. We only use a large plastic spoon for flipping. Try to flip just above the head of the bird you are targeting. We now feed a scrambled egg mixture and they do well. We now take every opportunity to keep them trained. If they are not hungry they won't take food. When they are struggling to feed young we use that opportunity to keep them trained. A PMCA bed and breakfast is supplied with building material, egg shell, oyster grit and food when needed. Hopefully some of this information is helpful.
Paul

P.S. I cant imagine them them taking eggs off a platform unless they learned to take crickets first. That being said, ours tend to drop tossed crickets now after being so used to the egg regime.

[randyM]

I've had luck getting birds at local colonies to start accepting flipped crickets by first flipping dragonflies to get them started and learn you're flipping food to them. Martins can't resist chasing dragonflies, and they seem to catch on to this option much faster than just flipping crickets to initially teach them. I collect as many dragonflies as I can at my colony that fall to the ground when parents and young fumble the handoff during feeding when young have their heads poking out the nest cavity entrance.

We had the same cold rainy/snowy weather in SD that you had in WI. Seven of the last 8 days had rain day and night with daytime high temps in the low 40's and overnight lows around freezing. My colony and others nearby lost 25-50% of their resident martins during these two back-to-back weather events.

Best of luck to you!

Randy

[SE Wisc hopefull]

Thanks all - helpful advice. I tried again this morning all remaining PMs freaked out and took off for the trees. Guess I just need to get them more comfortable with me.

follow-up ? ... when you say you lost 25-50% do you mean they left to return later or passed away?