Are They Relocating From Hurricanes Katrina and Rita?

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Guest

It is a wonderful sight. There are ASY martins all over our housing today. There were eight ASY pairs, and no others, in our single Alamo last year. I added three more Alamo houses this year. The birds that I assumed to be my returning ASYs arrived fully a month earlier than last year. These first birds showed no preference at all to the old housing. They mostly preferred the new housing. I expected they would want the house they fledged young in last year. In the last few days many new ASY birds and no SYs yet have showed up. The Alamo houses are now pretty much evenly occupied. I counted at least 32 PMs coming in to roost last night, and I suspect that there were some already inside before I started counting at 6:30PM, under heavy cloud cover. I am beginning to wonder if these new ASYs are coming in from way off, and which ones are our returning PMs. The early ones or the late ones? We are located in extreme Northeast Texas near the triple point of Ar., Ok. and Tx. Rita came straight to here and made a right turn right on top of us. Some folks due south of us had a pretty hard time of it as well as the tremendous destruction of Katrina. Has anyone else observed anything like this? A penny for your thoughts.
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Guest

I posted about an odd phenomenon that has taken place at our PM colony about seven hours ago. There has not been any answers. Does nobody on the Forum have any thoughts on where those Central Gulf martins that had their housing destroyed, have gone? Did the PMs that usually stay where the hurricanes hit keep going, and therefore arrive at points north earlier than usual? Has anyone observed what is happening to the PMs in Mississippi? We had PMs a month before the usual time around here. Is anyone else on the Forum getting more ASY birds than would normally be expected? We have about three times the expected number of ASY birds and many have just arrived, a month and a half after the first ones. Do the returning PMs usually distribute equally around new but identical housing without regard for which house they nested in the year before? Is this just something that happens all the time? Someone on this Forum must have seen something.
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Guest

I saw your post earlier, but didn't reply. I have no idea where the PM from the hurricane area would have gone. I would think that once they got back to their houses and finding them gone, they would feather out in all directions, trying to find housing. Thats only my guess. That may explain why you had PMs earlier than usual. I would think some of the landlords along the GC would have posted about their colonies filling up, but only Steve K and his neighbor have been mentioned. Hopefully, the ones left homeless will distribute out and fill what new housing there is and what was left. It will probably be many years before the PMs come back to the GC in the strength that they were. Maybe they could turn New Orleans into a bird sanctuary!

Chuck
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Guest

Thanks Chuck. We are located about 100 miles northwest of Steve K.. I think it could be useful to know what the PMs are doing. Massive relocation could cause a shift in migration patterns and their timing. I wish we could determine if anything like what has happened at our place is playing out all over the middle south. If it is, things are likely to change with respect to PM migration.
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Dale Hrncirik

tidfam,

This is my 2nd year here in Allen Tx. Last year I had 5 pairs of SYs. This year I have about 15 pairs of adults already and I'm not sure where they came from but I'm not complaining. I did have lots of subbie visitors last year about the time the young-ens were getting ready to fledge.

I don't know if hurricane displaced martins would venture this far from their destroyed housing. I believe that your location is much more likely than mine to attract martins displaced by the hurricanes. Enjoy and have a great year!

Dale
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Guest

Thanks Dale. Where is Allen from Texarkana?
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Guest

He's one of those "North Dallasites"!
Last time I checked, Allen was a tad south of McKinney. Due West and a little South of Tex orkanna! If you find out where all those PMs are from, let us know.

Chuck
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Dale Hrncirik

tidfam,

As Chuck said, I'm in a north Dallas suburb and almost in Fairview to my north and Lucas to the east. Allen is about 15 miles NNE from the northern Dallas city limits.

Dale
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John Atteberry

Hello tidfam,
I picked up lot's of ASY martins too! I had only 2 pairs of ASY martins and 1 pair of SY martins last year for the first time at my new location! And now I have 13 pairs of ASY martins as of now! So I think the new martins are from the damaged areas! I had alot of visitors last year though too! I'm not complaining either! HA! John!
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Guest

Thanks Dale and John. That is a bunch of ASY birds coming from somewhere. No complaints here either. It is great. We had only one subadult pair last year. These large numbers of ASYs are somebody's loss. At this point it looks like they have dispersed over a very wide swath of territory, Florida to Texas. The PMs that usually come up through La. have had much of their housing lost, especially on the east side, but some on the west side too. I think it is going to be interesting to see how arrival times are affected next season. Thanks for the input.
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Guest

Hi Tidfam,

I've been wondering about altered migration patterns also. I R COTTON-TN had asked that same question a week or two ago under the thread 'Coastal Damage'. See the 2 replies he got (out of 200+ views). Maybe that will help? It seems nobody really knows yet. :???:


I would be very interested in reading data from a migration study, if there is one, or if one is ever done.

Happy Martining this year, may your endeavors be successful.
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Guest

Thanks Becky. That was almost like deja vu all over again. I guess there just are not many people on this Forum that care to discuss it. I think it is an opportunity lost.
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Guest

Well, to be fair Tidfam, many of the northern folk haven't yet gotten their ASYs yet, let alone any SYs looking for new homes. It's early for many of our Northern members and their weather has been cold and stormy (with more cold temps to come this week). Many PMs may be taking their time about heading up there. Maybe broach the subject a bit later in the season?

It could also be a situation that nobody really knows the answer, rather than they don't care to discuss it. Folks here usually seem keen to discuss any subject that pertains to PMs, but a long thread of folks chiming in to say 'I don't know' does nobody any good. :)

I'm sure your question isn't being ignored. Maybe the two of us could do a web search on bird migration (especially PMs) and the effects hurricanes have on them, but I'm thinking (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that the only CERTAIN way we have of knowing where PMs end up and if they change routes/nesting areas is by reading the banded ones who show up in colonies. Maybe one of the folks who is involved in banding can speak up here and suggest a starting point for us to begin looking for information.
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Guest

Here's another thread about hurricanes affecting migration:

http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... highlight=
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