My martins fledged the last young a week ago. Now each morning for the last 3 days at about 8AM A huge number of martins show up at my house. Many of them try to fight for perches on the martin houses. The nearby tree tops and power lines are full of martins. They delight in taking off alltogether ever few minutes and then land again. This happens until about 2PM when they all dissapear only to come back again the next morning.
I have had these houses up for the past 3 years and never had this happen before. Usually at this time of the year I see no martins here. What is going on?
Large Martin Flock
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robndebby
- Posts: 119
- Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2005 1:25 pm
- Location: VIRGINIA/POWHATAN
- Martin Colony History: Established colony in 1990
I wish I could tell you what is happening, but the same thing happens to us every year (for the past 14 years). Ours have all fledged and gone, but last night there was one lone Martin soaring around. Again today, there were about 8 Martins that showed up about 9:00 a.m., stayed a while (same as all this past week), and left. I'm assuming they'll do it again tomorrow morning. I do remember one year after they had all left, a week later they all showed up again, hung around for a day and night, and then left the next morning. I hope someone has an answer for this, it is interesting behavior.
ROBNDEBBY
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geneinmurphy
- Posts: 348
- Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2003 12:09 pm
- Location: North Carolina/Murphy
They're probably on their way to South America.....
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CUL Lou~Mich
Perhaps they are part of a "Pre Roost" bunch. Or they could be roosting close by. No telling how many you might see if you could figure out where they go after leaving. Do you have a "Dopplar Radar" site close by?? If so, you might be able to pin point where they are at during the night. CUL Lou