WEATHER RELATED IMPACT ON SITE FIDELITY
-
Ed Svetich-WI
- Posts: 815
- Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:05 pm
- Location: Brooks, Wi (McGinnis Lake)
- Martin Colony History: 24 Super and Excluder Gourds on two gourd racks, all SREH. Full occupancy. My philosophy is to maximize fledge % with existing cavities rather than adding gourds to grow colony, thus providing opportunities for new colony expansion. Fledge over 100 nestlings yearly from 24 gourds. Band nestlings in cooperation with state university. 2019 Adendum: Reduced colony size to 12 gourds to focus on more intensive management regimen.
I am curious if weather related deaths, such as have been discussed on the forum have resulted in any ASY martins abandoning a site. I understand that nesting failure and predation can lead to site abandonment, but can deaths due to weather cause surviving martins to look elsewhere due to the deaths that a colony experiences. Might that explain ASY birds that start new colonies?
-
dcartwright
- Posts: 259
- Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2003 2:52 pm
- Location: Winchester, Ky.
Ed,
This is what I hope to answer in the next several weeks. After reading the responses to my questions today, there are still questions as to what is okay and what is not okay to do under these terrible conditions.
Some history;
The gourd with the six dead young is from my first pair of the year. This gourd is the gourd that had my first pair to start the site in 2003. It was the first gourd to have a pair in 2004, 2005, and again this year well. Is it the same pair from four years ago? I believe it is, but I cannot say for sure. I can say for sure the gourd had 5, 6, and 6 successful young in the past and had six young that died this year from the weather.
My plan.
I will remove the dead tonight and record what happens with this pair.
I?ll check the other two nests that had some young alive and some dead. I?ll remove the dead and if any are still alive, they will remain along with the eggs.
After reviewing my records, I have four other nests that are two weeks into the incubation process. All of these eggs were cold to the touch last night. If they are still cold, I plan to remove an egg at a time and check it for life. If it is found to be dead, each egg will be checked for life until all are removed. If they still show life, they will remain.
My hopes are each pair will re-nest that has lost young or stopped incubating their eggs. From what I have observed over the last several days, the adults are just trying to hang on and have no interest in their eggs or young at this time. We have some very warm weather forecasted in the up coming days that should cause them to concentrate on nesting again.
This may not be the best and right thing to do, but I?m not convinced at this point it is not. At the very least, we?ll hopefully have some answers that may help others in the future.
This is what I hope to answer in the next several weeks. After reading the responses to my questions today, there are still questions as to what is okay and what is not okay to do under these terrible conditions.
Some history;
The gourd with the six dead young is from my first pair of the year. This gourd is the gourd that had my first pair to start the site in 2003. It was the first gourd to have a pair in 2004, 2005, and again this year well. Is it the same pair from four years ago? I believe it is, but I cannot say for sure. I can say for sure the gourd had 5, 6, and 6 successful young in the past and had six young that died this year from the weather.
My plan.
I will remove the dead tonight and record what happens with this pair.
I?ll check the other two nests that had some young alive and some dead. I?ll remove the dead and if any are still alive, they will remain along with the eggs.
After reviewing my records, I have four other nests that are two weeks into the incubation process. All of these eggs were cold to the touch last night. If they are still cold, I plan to remove an egg at a time and check it for life. If it is found to be dead, each egg will be checked for life until all are removed. If they still show life, they will remain.
My hopes are each pair will re-nest that has lost young or stopped incubating their eggs. From what I have observed over the last several days, the adults are just trying to hang on and have no interest in their eggs or young at this time. We have some very warm weather forecasted in the up coming days that should cause them to concentrate on nesting again.
This may not be the best and right thing to do, but I?m not convinced at this point it is not. At the very least, we?ll hopefully have some answers that may help others in the future.
-
flyin-lowe
- Posts: 3789
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:49 am
- Location: Indiana/Henry Co.
I hope to see some answers here as well. In one of my current post my PM's left last Thur. morning when the weather turned bad and I don't think they have been back. I have seen to PM's at my sight since but don't think they are mine as they had trouble getting into the SREH and my birds had no trouble at all. I am sure that they were already dedicated to my sight as they had been building nests for almost a week and they appear to me to be almost complete. I have my finger crossed but fear they have left. I have seen a lot of PM's flying around when the weather breaks so I know they are surviving its just that my sight has been a empty for almost a week 
-
Dick Sherry
- Posts: 774
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 5:30 pm
- Location: Tulsa, OK
Ed, back in May of 1992, we had cool and rainy weather for a week in the 3rd week of May. Most of our martins had young in the nest at that time. I didn't realize that the birds were starving until a friend called and told me what was happening at his colony. I lowered my houses to check on the birds, and discovered that most were communal roosting in just a few compartments. My timing was bad because it was late in the day and the martins got scared by the house being lowered and bailed out of the rooms where they had been roosting. I don't think all of them returned that night to roost. I removed babies that had died, and quickly raised the houses back up. I think we had nine nesting pairs before the bad weather hit. After the weather improved, 2 or 3 pairs finished raising their surviving nestlings, and another pair relaid their eggs and successfully fledged 3 or 4 young. The rest abandoned our site, but within a few days, martins showed up and started using a new martin house that had been put up in April about a half mile from us.
The really bad part was that we had martins visit in 1993 and 1994, but none nested. We did not get nesting birds again until 1995. Back then, I didn't know about supplemental feeding, which probably would have helped the birds. I also should not have checked on the birds so late in the day. If a landlord is going to check on the birds by lowering their houses, it should probably be done late morning or early afternoon, so they have time to adjust to the interruption long before it is roosting time. There should also be a plan for capturing the weakened birds and feeding them until they are stronger. This gets real tricky if there are also young nestlings that need to be cared for as well. Sometimes it is hard to know when to intervene and when to let Nature take its course, and when the temperatures are somewhat mild during times of prolonged rain, it is hard to know they are in trouble until adults start to drop.
If all the birds at your colony left and survived the bad weather, I would guess that they will be back since they have not had a nesting failure at your location. Good luck and I hope they return soon.
The really bad part was that we had martins visit in 1993 and 1994, but none nested. We did not get nesting birds again until 1995. Back then, I didn't know about supplemental feeding, which probably would have helped the birds. I also should not have checked on the birds so late in the day. If a landlord is going to check on the birds by lowering their houses, it should probably be done late morning or early afternoon, so they have time to adjust to the interruption long before it is roosting time. There should also be a plan for capturing the weakened birds and feeding them until they are stronger. This gets real tricky if there are also young nestlings that need to be cared for as well. Sometimes it is hard to know when to intervene and when to let Nature take its course, and when the temperatures are somewhat mild during times of prolonged rain, it is hard to know they are in trouble until adults start to drop.
If all the birds at your colony left and survived the bad weather, I would guess that they will be back since they have not had a nesting failure at your location. Good luck and I hope they return soon.