Migration Report 2-South Texas w/photos

[John Barrow]

Hi friends,

Just got back in from Port O'Connor and there are a lot of martins that were holed up along the coast this weekend. Today should see them moving northward.

We arrived late Friday afternoon seeing many martins around many houses previously unoccupied, checking out the offerings. That evening in Port O we found that our three systems are over half occupied (51 pairs last year). In addition there were 25-30 passerbys that stopped for the evening.

Saturday brought heavy fog well past noon followed by the arrival of the norther, rain and cold temperatures. It appeared that many of the migrating martins stayed in town on utility wires until late in the day when the front blew through and they could finally feed and travel on.

Saturday evening our local birds returned before dark and claimed cavities. At dusk they were inundated by 75-100 passerbys. We have posted photos of two of the systems. The more occupied goliad/add a rack is about 50 feet down the street and our photos came out fuzzy.
Today it started out cold and cloudy but had cleared and began to heat up before 10 am.

There are lots of martins headed north and it looks like the delay in migration will be offset by continued heavy returns through this week. Most of the birds arrived in fairly good condition, but the poor feeding Sat upon arrival stressed a few. We fed about 300 crickets to the birds during the afternoon. We noticed one ASY male on the systems Sat afternoon in poor shape--too weak to feed and barely able to move or sit on the perches. We tried to catch him when he flew and sat on the ground to force feed him; but darkness interrupted our attempts and he could fly well enough that we couldn't quite catch him. We found him dead this morning. His weight was under 40 grams--the weight of a healthy 9 day old nestling.

Central Texas should see some arrivals tomorrow and heavy arrivals beginning Tuesday. The gates are open.

Best wishes, John

[klcretired]

John , as always thanks for the info , we all sure do appreciate it even if some was bad news , sorry for the loss of that Pm, it always breaks my heart when we loose one.Thanks again for the Heads up report.

[Sharon - Central TX]

John,
Thank you so much for the update. I haven't seen one martin out over the lake thus far, so hopefully this week they'll start finding their way here. I enjoyed your pictures and wish you continued success.
Sharon

[Craig Haddox]

John, Thank's for the update. I should start seeing my first arrivals in about 3 week's here in East Central Missouri.

[Sue]

We do appreciate taking you the time to post this migration update. It always gives our ole hearts a lift to hear more of our babies are headed northward.

[Dale Hrncirik]

Hi John,

Thank you so much for the reports and taking great care of the martins down south...and you too Louise!

Dale

[Guest]

John,
Thanks for the reports. It's great having them. Hopefully mine will be in there somewhere and arrive early in the week. Been kinda lonely around these parts!!!!

Chuck C
Arlington

[e p jones]

pix from port o, or c.c. ?

[Guest]

Wonderful news from you John and thanks. Eight martins decided they like the looks of my setup...a homemade rack with 8 natural gourds and 8 Narurelines with shreh entrances, and two converted Coates house with 8 6"x12" compartments.

Happy days are here again!

Anna Jones

A martineer for over 50 plus years.

[John Barrow]

E.P.,
Those are two of my systems in POC. They came out real dark on my screen. There are 31 martins on the outside of the goliad in the first picture but many are huddled on the perch on the other side away from the wind. The other system down the street I have there is identical but it was too dark and it was too far away to get a good picture. It was covered with arrivals.

When we have arrivals like this, the resident martins move inside their gourds and defend them. The passerbys then fly system to system looking for an available cavity. Often 6 or7 will stay in the same cavity. Usually they leave before daylight and it's as if the huge numbers were only a dream. I hope to post a few pictures when the subbies arrive in their accelerated migration, and at a time when most cavities are occupied. We often have 200-300 subbies land on the systems in an evening and fights break out everywhere. Sometimes the martins will fly to a nearby tree and roost the evening. Others will stay out on the wires all night. I feel really blessed to have the opportunity to see migration in two locales so close to the Gulf of Mexico.

[John Barrow]

Delete double post

[John Atteberry]

Hello John,
Thanks for the info! There are some landlords here in Pensacola and in around Pensacola are confused as with me too about where are all the martins! I guess the weather got us all! No martins yet for me either! Still waiting for my three pairs if they made it from last year! Thanks John!

[Dave S (Texas)]

Thanks John! Your report along with the weather-guesser report for this week indicates a great week for Texas landlords and those northward. I had some ladies arrive yesterday.....they were very popular with the boys already here.

[Guest]

HI John: I got a call from Drew (our son) in POC on Saturday, reporting that he had about 200 PMs passing through his yard. He also reported that a Cooper's or Sharpie had started hanging around his neighborhood, and was providing some real acrobatic shows as it attempted to predate (is that a word?) his growing colony. So be on the lookout...

I'm pleased that some birds are finally on the move. We got about 7 pairs in Kenney on Tuesday/Wednesday after 2 weeks of wringing our hands. More showed up this weekend - a few pairs stayed, but many moved on, as is to be expected.

I got my nestcam installed yesterday. Luckily, I had a couple of days to figure out which gourd might have a high likelihood of having a pair stay over, and I chose correctly. It's fun to switch over to the nestcam during commercials to see what's going on!

Say Hidy to Lousie for me...