Left last Sunday for Florida to attend training classes and returned yesterday (Friday). My 73 year old father-in-law arrived at my house last Monday after a 6 week stay in the hospital caused by a tractor accident while bush hogging so understandably, my wife had little time to monitor the martins while I was away.
The 4 nestlings my ASY pair are raising are doing great! Just started peeking out the entry hole yesterday and should fledge next weekend.
I had an SY pair that were nesting in a Big Bo gourd underneath the house the ASY pair are nesting in. My wife said she did not see this pair at all yesterday. During my nest check yesterday afternoon, all 3 of the SY pair's eggs were gone. Nothing on the ground and the nest appeared undisturbed. What could have happened to these eggs? I have snake netting up and a predator guard......and you would think that a snake would have went after the nestlings before the eggs. Also noticed that the ASY male did not stay at their nest last night. He has spent the night in that nest every night since May 12.......the day they "claimed" the nest. I'm not sure if the ASY female stayed with the young or not. At 8:45 PM she was still feeding.
Any guesses what may have happened here?
Nest failure for SY Pair: Why?
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John Miller
- Posts: 4867
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:11 pm
- Location: St. Louis, MO
Hog Wild
I had something similar happen and I'm suspecting renegade, unmated SY males.
I doubt a snake as you have good guards, and with sparrows you'd likely find chipped, dumped eggs. Also, the SY male of the pair may not have guarded the eggs well when the female was out.
John Miller,
St. Louis
I had something similar happen and I'm suspecting renegade, unmated SY males.
I doubt a snake as you have good guards, and with sparrows you'd likely find chipped, dumped eggs. Also, the SY male of the pair may not have guarded the eggs well when the female was out.
John Miller,
St. Louis
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Guest
You know.....I didn't think about that! I had another SY female looking at my housing last weekend and she had at least 3 males here with her trying to get her to pair with them. That is the most logical thing I've thought of so far. The ASY male not staying the night may be due to the heat which settled in our area last week.
Another possibly related event. I switched the entry hole from round to crescent on Friday......2 days before I left on Sunday. The female entered on her 5th try. I saw the male attempt to enter the gourd about 5 or 6 times on two seperate occasions without success. I was never able to verify that the male entered the gourd before leaving for my trip. I know that the male was here quite a bit on Saturday and I seen him before I left on Sunday morning sitting on the porch of the gourd.
Another related issue, I never saw this male spend the night at my site with this female. She started staying the night when she started sitting on the eggs. The male did stay the night here prior to pairing with the female.......till 1 evening at dusk, a hawk almost grabbed him off the porch on the house (he was roosting on the porch instead of entering the house to sleep) The male has never spent the night here since but stays here all morning and is back around 5:00 - 6:00 PM and flies away at dusk. I think I saw this male on my house this morning.
Another possibly related event. I switched the entry hole from round to crescent on Friday......2 days before I left on Sunday. The female entered on her 5th try. I saw the male attempt to enter the gourd about 5 or 6 times on two seperate occasions without success. I was never able to verify that the male entered the gourd before leaving for my trip. I know that the male was here quite a bit on Saturday and I seen him before I left on Sunday morning sitting on the porch of the gourd.
Another related issue, I never saw this male spend the night at my site with this female. She started staying the night when she started sitting on the eggs. The male did stay the night here prior to pairing with the female.......till 1 evening at dusk, a hawk almost grabbed him off the porch on the house (he was roosting on the porch instead of entering the house to sleep) The male has never spent the night here since but stays here all morning and is back around 5:00 - 6:00 PM and flies away at dusk. I think I saw this male on my house this morning.
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John Miller
- Posts: 4867
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:11 pm
- Location: St. Louis, MO
Hog Wild
Sounds like your teen SY male of the pair had some maturity issues.
I do worry about suddenly switching out round to SREH when eggs are there -- but lots of folks say the birds will go through when they've got eggs and that because of the danger of starlings, you really don't have a choice.
Couple of thoughts for next season, the SREH on your Big Bo may be easier for martins to navigate if you redrill the porch holes and move the porch, which I think is now flush, to one-fourth inch below.
I made a gradual switch to SREH in two Trio compartments this spring when nesting building was underway in two 6 x 6 compartments where I had left round holes. (other compartments were all 6 x 12 and SREH).
Each 6 X6 unit had blocked off back compartments, so I opened those up. At the same time, I replaced the round hole front door with a SREH door where I had rough opened the SREH up to a full 1 1/4. Then after about three days I replaced that door with a regular SREH. Lots of tinkering -- but seemed to ease them into SREH okay.
John Miller,
St. Louis, Mo
Sounds like your teen SY male of the pair had some maturity issues.
I do worry about suddenly switching out round to SREH when eggs are there -- but lots of folks say the birds will go through when they've got eggs and that because of the danger of starlings, you really don't have a choice.
Couple of thoughts for next season, the SREH on your Big Bo may be easier for martins to navigate if you redrill the porch holes and move the porch, which I think is now flush, to one-fourth inch below.
I made a gradual switch to SREH in two Trio compartments this spring when nesting building was underway in two 6 x 6 compartments where I had left round holes. (other compartments were all 6 x 12 and SREH).
Each 6 X6 unit had blocked off back compartments, so I opened those up. At the same time, I replaced the round hole front door with a SREH door where I had rough opened the SREH up to a full 1 1/4. Then after about three days I replaced that door with a regular SREH. Lots of tinkering -- but seemed to ease them into SREH okay.
John Miller,
St. Louis, Mo