Supplemental Feeding Post for Possible Long Term Tool...

[Linda Reynolds]

WARNING!!!!! Supplemental Feeding post..........(grin)

Recently, I have had a few additional thoughts regarding supplemental feeding.

I am now specifically thinking of those landlords that want to try to condition their colony to accept offerings long-term, when necessary and needed, and establish a useful *tool* for their colony. This includes all landlords that want to insure there are *martin teachers* in their colony, so they can help when long term assistance is needed.

Ordering crickets and/or mealworms, and scrambling eggs and offering that food to save your earliest arrivals, but then stopping the food supply for the rest of the season will only help those martins initially in need. If you do only that, and save your earliest arrivals, that is commendable.

However, we never know what the weather might bring our way in April, May or June (specifically drought conditions). Familiarizing your colony with self-feeding during critical times, and not only once or twice when needed to save the earliest arrivals, is important IF you want to help to deal with late season weather conditions that will possibly adversely affect your martins.

Many initial supplemental feeding reports from landlords state that martins will not accept supplemental feeding unless they are desperate. I am not sure this is true, but assuming it is, when they first arrive, they are already in a diminished state.........They might not be starving, but they are diminished and need food, and possibly heat. Try feeding your martins when they arrive, regardless of the weather. They might just accept a flung cricket, or visit a B&B or feeding platform. They might become the *teacher* in your colony.

Taking advantage of their normally diminished state, might be a reason to think about offering food, and putting a tool in place for the future. It will involve some time, some energy, and some expense, but I assure you, it is well worth the effort if you can condition your martins to accept offerings when needed,

Paul and I feed all arrivals regardless of weather conditions. We do this just to reinforce the drill and make sure we have that *teacher* in our colony. We know the new arrivals are diminished simply because of the migration, and for that reason alone, offer food, and sometimes heat.

I still, and always will, attribute many thanks and much gratitude to the late Ed Donath, PMCA's 1996 Landlord of the Year for providing the initial information shared with landlords regarding supplemental feeding. Ed has been the wind beneath my wings for many years, and thanks to him, his idea has grown, and landlords have saved many martins. If you have time, read Ed's story and advice here:

http://www.purplemartin.org/LOY/LOY1996.html


Thanks, Ed.

[Steven Spencer]

Linda, what would be your advice on how to get martins to use a feeder? At my place they will accept flipped mealworms and crickets when hungry but it sure would be nice to have them use a platform instead. The birds here are used to a platform I have out but I have only used it for holding nesting material.

Thanks,

Steven

[Frank Hargis-IL]

Linda, I believe you are right in your thoughts that everyone needs some “teachers” in their colony. I raise my own mealworms and feed some to the martins all summer long. I believe this gives the later arrivals a better chance to learn from the “teachers.” I usually have several that take mealworms for feeding their young, and themselves all summer. Some of the birds get very tame. They come so close when catching worms that I can feel the air from their wings. I don’t have to flip the worms way up high. I can set in a chair on our deck and the birds come down. I’ve read posts where people think that the birds will get too dependant on being fed and so don’t do this. However, when I’m feeding and then stop the martins only hang around for a few minutes then go off to find their own bugs. I really believe some of them are almost making a game of this and really enjoy it, I know I do. I also have a feeding tray and usually put a few worms in it about everyday. I feel that if you only feed the early arrivals when they really need it that maybe next year those birds may not, for a lot of reasons, make it back to the colony and then you would have to start over in training the martins to take supplemental feeding and if they don’t learn fast enough you will lose them to bad weather.

Good luck in the coming season,

Frank

[Guest]

Hi,

My experiences with supplemental feeding my northern martins differ from others in regards to martins taking food only when desperate or starving. I find my birds just as opportunistic as the house finches or the chickadees. I have had martins since 2005 and started training to feed in 2006. I started placing food inside the cavities (mixture of mealworms and thawed crickets), then moved to a platform feeder and eventually included tossing mealworms crickets and last year incorporated scrambled eggs. I chose to feed all summer so that all birds at my colony were familiar with all forms of feeding. Some preferred the platform feeder while others seemed to only take tossed food. The one thing that I found they all had in common was that they would take food on a beautiful sunny warm day as well as during cool spells. I had three or four that would sit on my lower roof in the morning calling until I tossed them a few eggs or whatever I had on hand.

They were especially willing to take food when they were feeding there young as I am sure they realized it saved them many trips out to the wild blue yonder. I did not feed them every day but at least every 3 to four and more often if the weather was bad. If I did not respond the the morning hassarssment by the martins they would give up and go find there own food, but most were more than willing to have breakfast served to them.

I found that the consistency of my feeding strongly conditioned my birds to take food whenever offered. I also had many visitors who quickly picked up on this ritual and would come from other colonies to steal meals from the b&b and also take tossed food from watching my trained birds.

I believe that the key is the repetition in feeding that really instills that behavior in the martins and may indeed save them as they travel through different colonies on there way home in the spring. It takes approximately 28 days to form a new habit and martins may be no different from any other animal you are trying to train, whether it be man, dog, or bird.

These are just my thoughts and experiences, but I thought it important to share with others as they are experiencing such stress trying to help their early arriving birds.

Anne Johnson
Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) Its -36 with the windchill here today!

[Linda Reynolds]

Good to read your post, Frank. You have a nice colony and I know from reading your posts over the years that you treat your feathered friends well. Good luck is sincerely wished for you this season.

Anne J, thanks so very much for adding your comments and experience. I hope your success will encourage others to persevere. Great story!

Steven, it sounds as if you are already off to a great start. Your martins already accept flipped offerings, AND they use a platform. You are almost *there*. I sincerely wish you good luck, as it is comforting to know your martins can self-feed from a platform.

I hope other landlords will chime in and share their techniques. I can only tell you what we have done and why. We contributed an article about supplemental feeding to the PMCA's 2009 Winter issue Vol.18(1) that contains photos and how we approached the supplemental feeding issue. We also explained why we chose to do some of the things that have worked well for us, and our martins.

When Paul and I started *flinging* crickets, we always flung FROM the spot in which our homemade feeding/nesting material platform is located. The martins eventually learned to look to this area as their *source* for supplemental food, and supplies. Many landlords have experienced success flinging towards this area, but because sometimes things get *hectic*, we were fearful a martin might collide with the feeding station. There are no set rules, and each landlord should do what works best for them and their situation.

Our feeding station is located approximately 50' from our closest rack. This positioning allows the martins to perch on *their racks* and see that there is food and/or nesting material on the platform. It also helps to reduce the possibility of forced copulation as the male usually accompanies the female to the station and he sits on the perches above.

It is mounted a little less than 5' from the ground on an old telescoping pole. This lower height allows me to easily refill the removable, colander-style containers. We chose to keep it at a lower height when during a severe ice storm, we could not raise or lower any of our poles. If a feeding station is mounted at a high altitude and becomes frozen during a storm, the landlord will not easily be able to replenish the offerings.

Again, photos and step-by-step instructions are provided in the Winter 2009 issue of the PMCA's UPDATE Vol. 18(1).

[JamesinIA]

Anne, thanks for including your feeding experience with us.

By the way.....I wish you would keep that sub-zero weather up there, it is supposed to be 5 below here, tomorrow morning It's almost March...enough already!!!

PS.... I suppose that I should be greatful it's not 36 below

[Guest]

Hi James,

We are pretty tough this far north as are our martins. -5 is almost short weather to us!

Good luck this season.

Anne Johnson
Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada)

[rehab]

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