Attention-Houston, TX Area Landlords!!!

[Sparky]

Foster Homes Needed!

Roslyn contacted me from the TWRC and they have martin orphans. Their house was knocked down by a recent storm and were taken to the TWRC Rehab clinic. I would love to take these guy's, but I don't have any nests left to fledge except some 3 day olds in a Troyer gourd.

If anyone can help please call the TWRC at: 713-468-8972 Ask for Roslyn or anyone else that can help if Roslyn happens to be out. The TWRC is on the Westside of Houston off of I-10. Their website has a map.
http://www.twrc-houston.org/contactus.html

I'll post some pictures when I get home. I'm not able to do so at work.

Here's their ages by my best guestimate. I don't have my handy dandy PMCA laminated photo's with me. If I had that I'd get real close

1. 22-23 day old, total 5 (47-53 grams weight)
2. 12-15 day old, total 2 (34, 37 grams weight)
3. 15-16 day old, total 2 (26, 34 grams weight)

Thanks,

Sparky

Edit:

Here are the orphans:
Older ones, 20-22 Days?


13-14 Days?


11-12 Days? I need a home.


Donna, they do have staff that lives all over the area. They may be able to deliver for you or I can work something out!

[Donna - TX]

Sparky I would love to take birds like this but I don't have a way to get them. I have nests that are that age but someone would have to bring them out to me and I know they don't do that. Maybe someone else will chime in that can go get them and put them at their colony, sorry. I hope they find a hope and fast especially for the older ones since time is running out for them.

[Louise Chambers]

Donna, TWRC may have staff or volunteers who could deliver the birds. I don't know their policy but you might contact them and ask. The recent colony rescue in AL involved volunteers taking martin nestlings to sites for fostering, and eventually all 23 birds were placed - a good job by everyone involved. I hope homes can be found for this group of birds too.

Louise

[Sparky]

Louise,

Yes, they do have volunteer's all over the area. They thought I lived in Sugarland for some reason and said they would deliver. I told them my office was 4 miles from them and I just picked mine up since I was so close and headed back home to Katy. They may have someone in the southern part of Houston who can deliver them to Donna. I remember last year they picked up an orphan at adiekaty's colony in Katy.

Sparky

[Donna - TX]

Sparky I have 7 nests out of 65 yet to go so I'm almost done.
I only had 1/4 of my birds come in tonight and I am guessing because the hawks were so bad today that they have decided to take the babies somewhere else and the visitors are not here either. It is very dangerous at my site right now for adults and babies so we will have to ask them if they want them here. Up to today I had over 200 martins a day come here which really helped with the hawks now that I don't have that it is difficult for me and the martins to scare them away but if they have no other place this is better than nothing.
My problem is the Cooper's and the Red-shoulder decided to nest here this year...

[The Olsons]

Sparky,

I wish I would live in your area....they are so precious. They all look so healthy and eager to be adopted. I just hope that someone will be able to help. Are there any other ways to get PM landlord's attention.....?

Astrid

[Sparky]

Astrid,

I wish I knew another avenue to get the word out. The TWRC has relied on me the last several years as an orphan outplacement site. Unfortuantely, I have only one nest left to fledge (7/3), 5 total babies and the new one that has 4, 3 day olds.

I figure the PMCA forum is the best method. Anybody have ideas?

Donna,
You can give Roslyn a call. As far as martin landlords, the TWRC looks to them as the experts, as they have so many species to deal with. It's a litteral Zoo in there!

I would imagine they can get these martins to fledge OK with cage training, but it would be better if they were in a nest, especially the young ones. Some of the larger ones they are being force fed. They are not adapting to rehab well. I've seen this with the martins I attempted to feed this year as well. I don't know why some of them won't eat. Another mystery The others, especially the small ones are eating well they tell me.

[The Olsons]

sparky,

It is so heartbreaking to see them so healthy and fit and having no home. I think they could be cage trained to fledge, but I do not think anyone can teach them how to catch bugs in flight other than a parent or another adult martin. I saw this at our colony a few days ago....there was this female flying with an insect and it appeared two martins were chasing her...I thought what is going on....then she jammed the bug in one of the other martin's mouth and I realized this was "in flight feeding training"....it was soooo cool to watch and that is really what they need and what needs to happen..

I just hope for the best for these little guys!!!!!!

Astrid

[Guest]

I often wonder how the babies learn to hunt, and I have seen the parent drop an insect in front of the babies, and the babies catch it and eat it. Now if they don't have a parent to train them, then how do they learn to hunt? Do they learn by themselves? I noticed that the other martins don't feed them. I have seen young fledglings begging for food, fluttering their wings. Do they survive without parents to teach them? This becomes important as more people are feeding the jumpers, so is it a wasted effort or do the babies that are hand fed actually survive on their own?

[Donna - TX]

I will give them a call first thing in the morning. I would rather give them some chance than no chance at all. Lets hope if I do get them they can adapt, I know the young ones can but not sure about the older ones since their are so many of them. I'm just glad my birds are use to me raising and lowering the systems since I will have to put the older ones in nests that are close to fledging and next to nest that are able to fledge.

[Sparky]

I often wonder how the babies learn to hunt, and I have seen the parent drop an insect in front of the babies, and the babies catch it and eat it. Now if they don't have a parent to train them, then how do they learn to hunt? Do they learn by themselves? I noticed that the other martins don't feed them. I have seen young fledglings begging for food, fluttering their wings. Do they survive without parents to teach them? This becomes important as more people are feeding the jumpers, so is it a wasted effort or do the babies that are hand fed actually survive on their own?

They really need the parents to learn to feed on their own. There are so many things they need to learn during the first week after fledging to survive. The rehabber's use "flight cages" to train martins how to catch food in the air. They also use the cages for raptors, in which the rehabbers throw food to get the young one's the idea. I don't know how successful they really are though. Foster martins can adapt to new parents as well. As long as they spend enough time together in the nest to get aquainted.
The 2 I released last Friday were flight cage trained and I believe they are still visiting in the morning.

Donna,
I hope you can get them Ok! I think they open up at 10am, but they may answer the phones earlier. This is peak season for them.

[Donna - TX]

Sparky I was telling my husband the other day that I need to call our local rehabber in Brazoria County and let them know I have a large Purple Martin Colony in case they get any orphans. I think this would be a good ideal for all the purple martin landlords to do since the Rehab Centers have no way of knowing where we all are.
I believe though people who do this would need to do nest checks and keep good records so they don't have to open every nest to see where they can put the babies.
If my husband had more time I would love him to put a site together that we could all register on for the Rehabbers, maybe when his work slows down some.

[The Olsons]

Donna,

I am glad to hear that you are trying to get the babies to you. You have done such an excellent job with your own by feeding them every day and protecting them from the hawks, that I know these little guys will be in the best hands with you. I know it is a big responsibility and challenge, but please know we all will send you good thoughts....

Astrid

[Sparky]

Donna,

Good news! They have a "rescuer" that can deliver to you! Cool! I love these folks.
That would be a great idea to link the colonies to the rehabbers. Roslyn wanted to link my nestcams to the TWRC website. I'll have to work on that for next season with a dedicated server. I really believe the rehabbers want to learn more about purple martins in general.

[Guest]

Last week I took 4 abandoned nestlings from 1 nest to the TWRC. I called Rosalyn yesterday and she was unavailable. She did return my call but I was outside. I will try to reach her this am. A couple of hours after I took the martins there (I did not see Rosalyn) I called her and talked to her. I told her I would be willing to drive the martins north to a nest if there are non left around here.

[Donna - TX]

O.K. Sparky after calculating my charts this is what I have so I will not be able to take all.

SOMEBODY PLEASE CHIME IN WHO CAN TAKE SOME OF THESE BABIES!

1 - nest 7 days old
1 - nest 17 days old
3 - nest 18 days old
1 - nest 24 days old
1 - nest 25 days old

[Guest]

I have no martins left here but I am able to drive the nestlings from the TWRC to new homes. Please send me an e mail and I will get in touch with you. [email protected]

[Donna - TX]

That is so sweet of you Lee!!!!

I will be calling them shortly to see what they want me to do.

I put this post on another forum so hopefully people will step up who have martins. You would think out of the so called thousands of martin landlords we could solve these problems for the rehabbers.

[Donna - TX]

I just called but had to leave a message since the lady answering the phone knows nothing about martins. She did say she is getting calls on the babies so this is GREAT NEWS! Way To Go Sparky!

[Donna - TX]

Sparky,

Since they do not have anywhere else to go I'm going to take all of them and pray for the best. I will treat the younger ones like runts in the nest and feed them. Thank You to Lee for volunteering to bring them out to me.

The older ones she thinks are adults if anyone understands the grams of martins please reply to this post. The older ones are 58 grams.