Okay, this morning I watched a female martin drop an egg from a compartment. I went to investigate and it was broken and even still warm. If I hadn't seen her do it, I would have blamed a sparrow. When I got home today, I found another broken egg on the ground below the house and some additional shells. I've already lost a very young baby to something, either a subbie or a sparrow. I found it's dried up remains on the ground below it's nest. Are the eggs being secretly destroyed by sparrows and she was just removing them from the nest? Could a martin from within the ranks be doing all of this? It's hard enough to lose them to sparrows, but if martins are doing this, what the heck can be done about it? I've worked my tail off this season trying to keep my colony completely sparrow free. This is really disheartening. I'm supposed to do nest checks tomorrow but might go ahead and do it today to try to find out what's going on. Any ideas will be appreciated.
Patrick
What the heck is going on???
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Guest
Partick, I don't know, but I feel your pain. I've had a whole nest of eggs go missing and I haven't seen a sign of S&S in a few weeks. I started with 5 eggs, then 4, and then 3 vanished in one day. I thought it could be a SY male, but I did see the female (I confirmed it was her) taking the nest apart and throwing the leaves/straw out the door. Now she and her mate are gone (either left or a hawk got her). I don't know what's going on.
Maybe the eggs just aren't viable?
Maybe the eggs just aren't viable?
Well, if my vision was correct this morning, the female came out of a compartment that hasn't even had eggs yet this season. It's a well-built nest with a mud dam in front but no eggs. The last nest check was Saturday. Maybe she laid a couple of eggs and doesn't know what to do with them. I think she's one of the SY females. Maybe she's clumsy and breaking them when she enters the cavity and then drops them out of the way. Maybe she's destroying them on purpose. Who knows? Maybe a nest check will shed some light on the situation.
Patrick
Patrick
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Guss P O'Brien
I have seen weird behavior this year as in all prior years. Previously, I've had no sparrows as I aggressively trapped and destroyed and none around by the time eggs are laid. This year I've experimented with non-lethal techniques and the few sparrows remaining don't seem aggressive. Either way, I can't say for sure that it was not sparrows. I lean toward the martins doing odd things.
For example this year. I've had 3 nest with 1-2 eggs laid on almost no nest or the worst possible looking nest you could imagine all the while there are 10 nest with no eggs, and they are perfect looking nests. You'd think if there were going to dump, they would do it in a nice looking nest. Entire clutches have disappeared seemingly unrelated to the snake issue I had. Maybe they sense a problem with the eggs and discard them. Or maybe they are just behaving randomly in a non productive manner.
I think it is important to remind oneself that they are non-sentient, non-thinking, non-reasoning animals that behave basically on instinct. They are not thinking rationally- they are not thinking at all.
For example this year. I've had 3 nest with 1-2 eggs laid on almost no nest or the worst possible looking nest you could imagine all the while there are 10 nest with no eggs, and they are perfect looking nests. You'd think if there were going to dump, they would do it in a nice looking nest. Entire clutches have disappeared seemingly unrelated to the snake issue I had. Maybe they sense a problem with the eggs and discard them. Or maybe they are just behaving randomly in a non productive manner.
I think it is important to remind oneself that they are non-sentient, non-thinking, non-reasoning animals that behave basically on instinct. They are not thinking rationally- they are not thinking at all.