Do ASY Males Usually Pair With ASY Females??

[Nanette]

Last year I had 3 ASY pairs and 9 SY pairs. This year I have yet to see a SY pair. I have 26 ASY males and what I think might be ASY females. I have not looked closely with the binoculars. Is it "safe" to assume the females are also ASY for Project Martinwatch? I am wondering why I have so many ASY birds. Could it be because of Hurricane Katrina and lost housing? I am also wondering where are my SY pairs?

[CUL Lou~Mich]

Nanette. First off, ASYMs will mate up with ASYFs if possible. If there are not enough ASYFs to go around, then the old guys will mate up with a younger female. Most of the ASYMs do pair up and mate though. Much more than SYMs. Lots of them have to wait a year to pair up and mate. As for why you have so many ASYs. It's possible it is from the Hurricanes. It's also possible there are colonies near your place that have become over run by EHS or EUST, driving the PMs away. Possibly some colonies that got taken down. As for where your SYs are? Who knows. Lots of folks are wondering that. Seems as though they are really slow in arriving at different places. CUL Lou

[Daniel Airola]

My experience may not be that relevant, since I am monitoring western purple martins nesting in bridges in Sacramento, but her about 1/3 of the paris we have captured and banded at nests have included SY females. A much smaller proportion of SY males pair and nest here.

Since martins are very philopatric (loyal to nesting areas) once they have nested, I would not expect any long-term displacement of martins to new nesting areas from Katrina. As Lou stated, I would think it was more due to local factors (good reproduction last year or the year before, or displacement from last years nesting areas).

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

Dan, I found your reply very interesting. I have a couple of questions. Please keep in mind that I am a newcomer this year and hope I am not asking something that I should already know.
You stated that you have trapped and banded about 1/3 of the pairs. I know martins are tolerant of people around the house and doing nest checks. When you trap an adult pair, do they still return to their nesting site and not consider this as predation?
Secondly, I thought you only banded the newborn while they were in the nest and their feet still small enough to slide a band over. What procedure do you incorporate to band an adult martin?
Tim

[Nanette]

Hi CUL Lou~Mich,
You said that the SY's are slow to arrive this year. Are people getting as many as last year only later or are the numbers down?

Hi Daniel,
I am not sure I understand why you feel there would be no long term displacement of Martins from Katrina. If the Martins moved away because of lost housing and then had a sucessful nesting in the new "home", wouldn't it return to the new home the next year?

[Daniel Airola]

Nanette - sorry I confused you. I meant to say "long-distance" displacement rather than "long-term" displacement. I meant that birds displaced by Katrina in the south would not locate as far north as Virginia. However, maybe I am not aware enough of the effects of Katrina further north, where I know it travelled in diminished form. If it destroyed housing and thus displaced birds from these sites, then they could be displaced to new sites, and once established there would remain (i.e., would be displaced "long-term").

Tim - We catch the adults at the nest with young in them, using pole nests placed over their entrance holes in the bridges. We wrote an article about this in the Update several years ago. Adult martins are very reluctant to abandon young late in the nesting season, after they have invested so much effort. Our study shows that they return to nests soon after being released after banding, proceed to rear young, and most that survive return to nest at the same colonies in subsequent years. So, no, it is not viewed by them as a predation event.

I don't do the banding (I do the capturing). I am pretty sure that the bands are pried open with banding pliers, placed over the leg and then closed. So they do not have to be slipped over the leg of young birds. Bands that would slip over the foot would also readily slip off. Other folks who band can correct me if I haven't stated this correctly.

[Daniel Airola]

I've got to stop responding to messages at 11:00 at night. We capture birds with pole NETS not pole nests (whatever that would be!)