This weather is a hard thing to take. But the weather is finally turning, today and tomorrow many colonies with get that much needed break for them to feed. If they have the strength left to do it.
I feel bad every year for the colonies that aren't associated with the PMCA, this forum, or don't know about supplimental feeding. There will be a bunch of deaths we wont even hear about. But it really can save your colony, has many, and more and more are learning it. But remember, you can't save them all.
I found 1 dead ASY male here today, 5 last year. And thats with feeding them. I'll check the colony in town tommorrow.
What now...
1. Continue to feed them. I'll feed mine again in the morning, but I imagine they will be gone most the day feeding for a couple days.
2. Check your housing. There could be many birds inside one room communally roosting. If the bird at the entrance died...the rest can't get out.
3. Hang in there if you find dead birds. Learn from it and go forward. Make plans for the future. These birds still need our help no matter what we find or what happens.
Best wishs,
bob
Midwest Lanlords, whats next, dead/downed birds
-
Mary Dawnsong
- Posts: 1685
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 8:17 pm
- Location: Michigan, Livingston County
This method of nursing downed, starving martins has worked well for me.
Wire bird cages damage feathers and should be avoided, according to PMCA.
This alternative can hold 2 or 3 birds at a time:
- Large metal trash can (very inexpensive and readily available).
- Mesh cover (hardware cloth, etc.) on top, weighted down (a tire iron works well).
- Newspapers covering the bottom of the trash can, replace them daily (while trash can is outside).
- Some sort of wooden perch on the bottom for the bird to roost on.
- A small bowl of water.
Release a few live crickets at a time. If a bird catches them on his own and does not have a disabling injury he will very likely recover.
Keep the trash can inside a building at room temperature.
If possible place the trash can outside directly under the martin housing for a few hours during the day -if- the weather is nice and you can be certain no predator gets to it. I find this really helps morale.
If it is not practical to take the bird outside, try to expose it to the sounds of the martin colony - playing Daytime Chatter recording is a substitute.
It takes about 4 days for a starved martin to recover.
By "starved", I mean a martin who has lost so much muscle from lack of food that he cannot fly.
If they catch and eat the crickets on their own, then thats all they need to recover.
An active martin needs about 40-50 calories a day. A large cricket provides about 1 calorie.
There is no sense in trying to release a bird until he is ready to fly strongly. A martin cannot hunt successfully until it is back to full strength!
He will let you know when ready to fly - he'll become noisy and active and try to escape by flying up to the mesh top.
Good luck, Mary
Wire bird cages damage feathers and should be avoided, according to PMCA.
This alternative can hold 2 or 3 birds at a time:
- Large metal trash can (very inexpensive and readily available).
- Mesh cover (hardware cloth, etc.) on top, weighted down (a tire iron works well).
- Newspapers covering the bottom of the trash can, replace them daily (while trash can is outside).
- Some sort of wooden perch on the bottom for the bird to roost on.
- A small bowl of water.
Release a few live crickets at a time. If a bird catches them on his own and does not have a disabling injury he will very likely recover.
Keep the trash can inside a building at room temperature.
If possible place the trash can outside directly under the martin housing for a few hours during the day -if- the weather is nice and you can be certain no predator gets to it. I find this really helps morale.
If it is not practical to take the bird outside, try to expose it to the sounds of the martin colony - playing Daytime Chatter recording is a substitute.
It takes about 4 days for a starved martin to recover.
By "starved", I mean a martin who has lost so much muscle from lack of food that he cannot fly.
If they catch and eat the crickets on their own, then thats all they need to recover.
An active martin needs about 40-50 calories a day. A large cricket provides about 1 calorie.
There is no sense in trying to release a bird until he is ready to fly strongly. A martin cannot hunt successfully until it is back to full strength!
He will let you know when ready to fly - he'll become noisy and active and try to escape by flying up to the mesh top.
Good luck, Mary
Click here to see my colony
"In Michigan every martin matters"
"In Michigan every martin matters"
-
Glen Webb Jr
- Posts: 478
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:03 pm
- Location: Illinois/Stewardson
A brake in the weather for my area yesterday afternoon/evening. I returned home at 5pm and immediately saw an ASY male sitting on a flame honeysuckle vine. Beside him was a dead ASY female and dangling by a foot was another dead female. As I started conducting nest checks, I immediately started discovering dead martins or martins too weak to fly, let alone escape me. I picked up the live birds and let them flutter off to their own deaths. Nothing I could do for them at all. I dumped ALL the eggs, although the starlings and sparrows had already done a great deal of that for me. Thus far 10 martins perished from the weather disaster and I discarded 125 eggs. I had four 7-egg clutches and around 10 6-egg clutches, most of the nests had either 5 eggs or less and a good deal of them were either smashed (communal roosting martins?) or pecked. Threw out two starling nests and one house sparrow nest. Just sickening. I'm not even depressed about it anymore. I'm just tired of it all more than anything.
Not even sure how many have survived. I think most have, but it's too difficult to tell. A good deal of the birds that did return last night communal roosted again, even though they had about 5 hours of feeding time. I could see/hear close to 20 or more this morning. A good sign, but a sad time.
Starlings made a big mistake this morning though. Shot a male while it sat inside a gourd(will have to discard him later...he's still in the gourd
), shot another while it was fighting at the entrance of a gourd with another starling, and shot one of the Mrs. Possibly two more to go as there were two pair as of yesterday. And the sparrows are getting the glue trap treatment and I'm so going to enjoy their death. I think I'll just leave them on the glue trap till they expire. I'm tired of sitting in a blind with a gun on what little time I have to spend with the martins. I can't even sit down like a normal person and enjoy the evening because all the damned hog farms around me produce an never-ending supply of starlings. Even now, while I'm still blasting and trapping away, there are about 5 or 6 starling family's hanging out in a willow grove not too far from the martin houses. Good thing I work 1/2 a day today and tomorrow and then I'm off Thursday-Sunday. I think I'll grab me a fancy drink and sit with my gun all weekend shooting baby starlings and their parents.
Not even sure how many have survived. I think most have, but it's too difficult to tell. A good deal of the birds that did return last night communal roosted again, even though they had about 5 hours of feeding time. I could see/hear close to 20 or more this morning. A good sign, but a sad time.
Starlings made a big mistake this morning though. Shot a male while it sat inside a gourd(will have to discard him later...he's still in the gourd
), shot another while it was fighting at the entrance of a gourd with another starling, and shot one of the Mrs. Possibly two more to go as there were two pair as of yesterday. And the sparrows are getting the glue trap treatment and I'm so going to enjoy their death. I think I'll just leave them on the glue trap till they expire. I'm tired of sitting in a blind with a gun on what little time I have to spend with the martins. I can't even sit down like a normal person and enjoy the evening because all the damned hog farms around me produce an never-ending supply of starlings. Even now, while I'm still blasting and trapping away, there are about 5 or 6 starling family's hanging out in a willow grove not too far from the martin houses. Good thing I work 1/2 a day today and tomorrow and then I'm off Thursday-Sunday. I think I'll grab me a fancy drink and sit with my gun all weekend shooting baby starlings and their parents.I did nest checks last night and did not find any dead birds..Thank you Lord! Not sure if any eggs had been layed prior to the cold/wet spell. Early evening was sunny and upper 50's so all the birds were out feeding. This morning, we had more sun and they were sitting on the perches and porches soaking up the sun.
I did notice some old nesting materiel (old corn stalks) under two of the gourd racks...not sure were it came from. None of the nests looked destroyed. I know I had atleast 40 birds spread out amongst the 31 goruds and I know I did not have that many birds b/4 the cold spell, so must have picked up a few for communal roosting.
Today has been mostly sunny thus far and in the mid to upper 50's. Tomorrow promises to be better.
I know on Sunday afternoon the temps reached mid 50's with a little sun and there were fly's, etc flying around the barnyard, so it was my hope they picked up a little meal on Sunday as well.
I hope others in the midwest have good reports and I know a few have not and I am truly sorry.
I did notice some old nesting materiel (old corn stalks) under two of the gourd racks...not sure were it came from. None of the nests looked destroyed. I know I had atleast 40 birds spread out amongst the 31 goruds and I know I did not have that many birds b/4 the cold spell, so must have picked up a few for communal roosting.
Today has been mostly sunny thus far and in the mid to upper 50's. Tomorrow promises to be better.
I know on Sunday afternoon the temps reached mid 50's with a little sun and there were fly's, etc flying around the barnyard, so it was my hope they picked up a little meal on Sunday as well.
I hope others in the midwest have good reports and I know a few have not and I am truly sorry.
-
Guest
Glenn, My heart goes out to you! Losing any martin from your colony hurts! Mother Nature does not play fair and we landlords pay the price. Try and stay possitive. Hopefully your colony will continue to grow in the coming years and this will all be a bad memory. Supplemental feeding is our only alternative. A lesson to be learned for us all. Again my thoughts are with you! Randy
-
John Miller
- Posts: 4866
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:11 pm
- Location: St. Louis, MO
Some encouragement. Have been fearing worst because have seen only a few. I just (2 p.m.) lowered one house again in Forest Park that had 14 pairs. Eight nests have eggs; no babies thankfully. About 8 ASY males and two females were circling above -- not stressed but chirping happily. They quickly landed back on the house, saw one female eat a cricket from the porch (encouraging as most crickets put there yesterday were not eaten); then she went inside her nest.
Maybe will have some birds. The birds seemed happy. Saw one male chase a leaf that blew off the porch, catch it and take it inside. I am concerned have lost more females from experience above, but hopefully they are out feeding while the males are guarding.
John Miller
Maybe will have some birds. The birds seemed happy. Saw one male chase a leaf that blew off the porch, catch it and take it inside. I am concerned have lost more females from experience above, but hopefully they are out feeding while the males are guarding.
John Miller
-
Glen Webb Jr
- Posts: 478
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:03 pm
- Location: Illinois/Stewardson
Yeah, a lot of returns last night and early this morning. It looks like I lost a minimal number of birds to the weather. Still though, there are quite a few extra adult females floating around now. But after seeing about 5 or 6 birds return around 5:30 am this morning, more may show back up. Not much excitement yesterday when birds started returning. Largerst numbers began showing up @ 8:12 pm and it quickly ceased by 8:17pm. A fast five minutes and almost two dozen or more birds returned. That doesn't count the large numbers of birds that were already back inside their gourds.
But this morning it was happy chirping songsters flying around having a good time. Some birds still sat droopy-winged on the crossbars and I already have a few subadults that are taking advantage of the weather deaths and claiming a few gourds.
I can tell you I am overjoyed at the low mortality and high number of return. At least I had some birds that survived and most seem to have survived.
I lowered the gourds yesterday afternoon as well just in case more had died. Found one female and a clutch of 4 eggs I somehow missed (2 of the eggs were cracked and one was smashed entirely, all had dead, bloody embryos inside). To my shocking surprise, I found a starling as well (not counting the one I left in the gourd after nailing him in the entrance hole). There must have been two birds in the gourd when I shot at her (or him?) yesterday morning. Also emptied the S&S traps of starlings and sparrows as well. So far this morning it seems I got rid of my S&S problem (6 starlings and 4 house sparrows) all in one day. I was late for work but thankfully I am in a situation where I can dictate my hours at this time of year.
Here's hoping that most of our birds survived. Once again the martins surprised me.
On a related note, I mentioned that the tree swallows and barnies didn't seem too affected by the weather of the last 5 days as they were feeding almost throughout the rain and wind. And I was right. Tree swallows are feeding babies! Just a total surprise indeed. Bluebird young survived too. It's just a shame that martins are much more stressed than other swallows during this kind of weather. Being large has its disadvantages. Guess there are pros and cons to being big and little.
But this morning it was happy chirping songsters flying around having a good time. Some birds still sat droopy-winged on the crossbars and I already have a few subadults that are taking advantage of the weather deaths and claiming a few gourds.
I can tell you I am overjoyed at the low mortality and high number of return. At least I had some birds that survived and most seem to have survived.
I lowered the gourds yesterday afternoon as well just in case more had died. Found one female and a clutch of 4 eggs I somehow missed (2 of the eggs were cracked and one was smashed entirely, all had dead, bloody embryos inside). To my shocking surprise, I found a starling as well (not counting the one I left in the gourd after nailing him in the entrance hole). There must have been two birds in the gourd when I shot at her (or him?) yesterday morning. Also emptied the S&S traps of starlings and sparrows as well. So far this morning it seems I got rid of my S&S problem (6 starlings and 4 house sparrows) all in one day. I was late for work but thankfully I am in a situation where I can dictate my hours at this time of year.
Here's hoping that most of our birds survived. Once again the martins surprised me.
On a related note, I mentioned that the tree swallows and barnies didn't seem too affected by the weather of the last 5 days as they were feeding almost throughout the rain and wind. And I was right. Tree swallows are feeding babies! Just a total surprise indeed. Bluebird young survived too. It's just a shame that martins are much more stressed than other swallows during this kind of weather. Being large has its disadvantages. Guess there are pros and cons to being big and little.