Purple Martins Feeding Low

[Steve Kroenke]

For the last few days, our weather has been cool and wet. Since we live in a very open area with cow pastures, the purple martins can fly at various heights to search for prey. Well, I have enjoyed watching our martins fly just a few inches over the grass and capturing small insects. These martins were behaving like barn swallows it seems! We have many small wildflowers blooming in our yards and insects are attracted to them. The martins will sometimes even hit a flower bloom when they capture an insect. Today, I watched numerous martins flying around beef cattle in the pasture across the road from my colony. The cattle were no doubt attracting and stirring up insects, particularly flies, and the martins were snapping them up.

When I lived in Florida, I never got a chance to observe this kind of low flying behavior often. It happens frequently over here in northwest Louisiana. Perhaps other folks have witnessed this low flying behavior of martins.

Steve

[Guest]

oops

[Davlyn]

Hello Steve
With me just 45 miles from Tallahassee I have never seen that behavior but I know it must have been fascinating to watch.

[Guss P O'Brien]

I've seen them in the yard flying low and even landing on the ground late in the evening to feed on emerging junebugs. I'd call it a frenzy. But, it is usually later in the summer after nestlings have hatched. I have notice the junebugs are out in force for a couple of weeks.

[CraigMo.]

I get to see this on cold mornings, plus I have seen them pick them off the edges of my house where I think the flys are warming up from the warmth of the sun on the walls of my house. Its pretty neat to see them catch the bugs.

[Sue]

Steve, I have seen the same behavior occur in March and April, during periods of cold or cold/wet weather. They fly very low over the cow pastures across the road. It has to be flies they are after.

[Steve Kroenke]

Thanks for sharing all of your observations. I do believe that martins are most adaptable and will catch insects close to the ground. This morning I watched martins actually fly to the ground and grab insects from the small wildflowers that are blooming all over our yards.

Unfortunately, martins will also land on the roads during such weather and one ASY male was killed yesterday by a truck. I do my best to chase them from our road.

Guss, yes the martins LOVE those junebugs. I have seen them hit those junebugs real hard in the early mornings/evenings. These were all airborne.

Steve

[John Atteberry]

Hello Steve,
The way your's and Bob's colony is growing up there you are going to have to get with the county and some neighbors to put up a fence on each side of the road like they did on the bridge in Louisana, The lake Pont.!!!! That will save alot of your martins from all that traffic!!!!HA! HA!
Anyway, Glad to hear your martins are doing OK! Well those two big flocks of martins the last two nights are finally out of here!!! I didn't see them tonight so I guess they were heading up north to the other landlords! But the good news is I got 26 martins now compare to 23 a couple of nights ago! So I did get some out of this flock that went through! I'll have to check to see what they were, SY or ASY martins! Hopefully females martins!! I need them bad! Have 5-6ASY males that I know of that don't have females yet! I 'll keep you posted!! John!

[TreeGreenwood]

... I watched numerous martins flying around beef cattle in the pasture across the road from my colony. The cattle were no doubt attracting and stirring up insects, particularly flies, and the martins were snapping them up.

Steve, a Holstein dairy is my neighbor to the south. Martins plus other swallows and swifts feast on the bugs attracted to and stirred up by the cattle. The show is especially impressive for evening milking when the setting sun reflects off the white hay barn and hundreds of birds making figure 8's through the cloud of bugs are silhouetted against the side of the barn. It's amazing to watch the mix of Barn and Tree Swallows, Purple Martins and Chimney Swifts in a feeding frenzy while the cows are lined up to be milked.

In early spring, there are bugs flying over the manure catchment basin even on very cold days thanks to the heat generated by the decomposition of fresh manure. Bluebirds perch at the edges and 'hawk' flies out of the air. Early arriving Martins are sustained by the flies breeding in or attracted by the dairy's manure pit. When the weather remains dry into nesting season, guess where the Martings get 'mud' for their dams? More evidence Martins don't have a good sense of smell.

[Steve Kroenke]

Tree,

For the last few days, our weather was cold but it has finally warmed up. Well, who said martins will not feed on insects on or near the ground during cold weather! They will do it in certain very open locations like cow pastures where flying insects may still be very low to the ground or resting in grass. Our martins would sit on barbed wire fences and drop down and try to grab small flying insects in grass. These martins were almost behaving like bluebirds! Often the martin would disappear inside the grass as he/she went for the insects! Also, martins were snapping up small flying insects on tiny white flowers that are about 5 or 6 inches in height and covering portions of our yards. The martins would often drop right down on the ground and grab the insects. Sometimes there would be martins all over our open lawns chasing insects it seemed.

Martins are more adaptable than we think and in certain locations martins can still find insects during inclement weather by feed in open pastures either on the ground or close to it.

Steve

[Guest]

When we were at the lake house this past week, it was cold and very harsh wind coming out of the north. On our vacant lot, there is some tall wheat looking grass, and the martins (when they finally came out of the gourds ) would fly down into the grass to eat bugs. And, I also saw them landing on the grass in front of the house to feed. It was really interesting to watch. I had never seen martins that low to the ground.



Lanell

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Lanell,

You have seen the same thing! Some other folks in our area also saw their martins feeding on or near the ground in open lawns/pastures. This morning some martins were feeding with a flock of cowbirds directly under Bob's martin colony! I watched martins swoop from my housing and snap up insects on those white wild flowers which cover portions of my yard. Several martins hit the ground when grabbing the insects!

Thanks for sharing your observations.

Steve