Sy female sneaks out at night

[stan davison]

I have an ASY male paired up with an Sy female. At roost time he makes sure she's tucked in and then he flys off to who knows where. As soon as he flys off a minute or two later she comes out of the house and leaves too. I'm never sure if they both come back in to roost.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Sounds to me like the female likes your place, but the male feels uncomfortable there, so he leaves at night. She doesn't like to stay alone so she also leaves.

If he stays with her, they will eventually start building a nest, and then they both will stay..

Martins do not like to be alone. Maybe they are going to nest with their friends at some nearby colony. They will become more comfortable at your place and probably stay..

[stan davison]

He has been building a nest all morning. She just sits on the house/wires and watches him. I watched him this morning trying to get a stick in the crescent hole it took him bout 15 minutes but he got it in.

[Dick Sherry]

Stan, I have noticed that some of our martins are leaving right before dark, and there have also been other martins flying west over our yard at twilight. So I suspect there is already a roost established where some of the local birds are spending the night together. My guess is that it is somewhere near the Arkansas River, and is probably made up of a lot of SY birds that have not started nesting (and may not nest) but they hang around active colonies during the day. There are also probably some ASY males whose mates are sitting on eggs, and they are no longer staying in the nest compartment at night. I think these males lead SY birds back to their colonies in the mornings. A number of years ago, when the martins were using the autobank downtown as a major roost during the summers, there were martins roosting there in early May. We checked it in the predawn hours several times one year and there must have been several thousand martins there, and they were dawnsinging. It was amazingly loud and would likely be heard for miles by migrating SY birds. Anyway, I hope your birds are serious about nesting, and that they are joined by some others.

[Ryan]

A few years back when Martins were still around here, I would notice them flying around town in the evening. There was an old stone building downtown located beside the river that faced directly into the setting sun each night.

The building was 100 years old and had the old decorative moudling below the roofline. Anyway, the sun would heat the stone for the entire afternoon and evening, giving it enough heat to probably stay warm for many hours a night. (like a stone in a fire pit).

The martins would line up on that moulding under the buildings roofline before dark, and stay there when it became dark. It had to be warmer than the housing.

[Guest]

Stan,

I had an SY male last year that started hanging around the male all the time from my ASY pair. I watched one evening to see if he spent the night. Sure enough he roosted on the porch adjacent to the ASY pair's nest. Just at dusk a hawk came in low and swooped up and made a grab for him.....but just missed. The SY male bailed out right over the hawk's talons (the hawk almost turned upside down with his lunge for the male) and lit out like I've never seen before.

The male still hung around all the time but he never spent the night again. A couple of weeks later this male paired with an SY female. They built a nest here but never spent the night. After she layed eggs, she started spending the night but the male would fly away after putting her to bed each evening.

There is a possibility that you have a predator......owl, hawk, coon, etc. Of course it may just normal and the martins feeling safer spending the night with other martins. Is your site new?

[stan davison]

I watched this evening and i totally agree with Dick. There were several birds flying to the west over my house and the birds hanging out here did not even attempt to roost here unless they came in after dark. I bet they will be back again tomorrow at 7 am on the dot like they have been. I would also like to correct myself on the sy female. Turns out she landed on the wire real close to me and she has brown/gray spots on her underside. They are not real dark but i'm thinking she's ASY. I still have not noticed any Sy males but i'm sure they are on the way. At the beginning of this season i had an ASY female hanging out here and i thought she had been injured or broke a nail because she sat on the wires different and she could hardly hold herself up. She has been absent for a week or so and i saw her again today. Not to keep rambling but my neighbors directly behind me are cleaning up their yard and i guess they will be removing some major trees. She said they will be removing them this week. I hope it won't bother my martins and scare them away when these trees start falling to the ground and the loud sounds of the chainsaw. Anyways thanks to all for responding.

[stan davison]

Hogwild this is my second attempt to attract nesting martins. Last year had several visitors and an sy male stay here most of the summer.

[Joe Zorn]

I have an ASY male paired up with an Sy female. At roost time he makes sure she's tucked in and then he flys off to who knows where. As soon as he flys off a minute or two later she comes out of the house and leaves too.

Stan, my first wife was a lot like that. That's what he gets for trying to keep up with a younger woman!

[eyeamtheman]

So does that mean you can't handle a younger woman ???????
(holds stomach, rolls on floor laughing )

[Joe Zorn]

Yep! Learned that lesson a little late. Too much training involved!