Crane Flys

[mgstei1]

We were blessed yesterday with arrival of 2 females and a lone male. This am the females are checking out all the gourds and the sound of their singing is once again a welcome sign that spring is arriving.
My fear however is this is the earliest we have received martins in the past 10 years. By at least 2 weeks. Usually when we start seeing Crane Flys flying about in the yard the martins arrive in a day or two. I have always speculated that this is one of their 1st meals here in this area. We are praying that the flys will show today or this weekend (some call them mosquito hawks) so the martins will have at least a meal or two during this cold snap. If not I guess we will be spoon slinging crickets to help them out.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

We don't live that far from you, maybe 60 to 80 miles. We had martins here since the late 80s, and we fed them twice, the rest of the years we didn't need to feed them. You should be ok most years. Last year we fed them for about 3 days so they may have perished if we didn't feed them last year. I fed them about 6 years ago, but it was not necessary because only some ate, the rest survived w/o feeding. To my knowledge, we never lost any martins due to cold weather.

Just watch the weather, if they are predicting 4 to 5 days of cold or very rainy weather, then you should consider feeding them.

[Laverne]

I have been seeing "Crane Flies"! They've been around my house for about 2 weeks. We refer to them as Purple Martin fodder... I believe that they are the first sign of spring in our area. But, they are not the "only" bugs around. With temps in the upper 60's and 70's every day, the Purple Martins are finding plenty to eat in this part of Texas.

As Emil said - we have very few opportunities to actually feed our birds. Last year was one of those years - I don't know if this year will be. And, I say "opportunity" because our colony will not accept tossed crickets from us if they are not hungry. So, why waste your money and your time to experience frustration. If the temperature is going to remain below 50 for more than 24 hours then you can probably "train" your birds to accept food from you. Otherwise they will just look at you funny while the crickets fly over their heads.

Whatever happens this season - remember to enjoy it all and good luck for lots of rain, lots of bugs, and lots of babies.

Sincerely,
Laverne

[dsonyay]

Yep! Last year when the crane flies started to appear, I had my first visitors to my gourds. It may have been late February/March time-frame though.

The PMs seemed to be swooping low through the hourds of crane flies.

[mgstei1]

Thanks folks!!
Its just so early or I have the fear of it being early but i need to remind myself the birds always know more about their food supply than I do.
Those crane flys are always my indication of the birds arrival.
Those two females/1 male have been gone several hours having lunch or what I like to call Lunner the time late from lunch and way before dinner.
Hopefully everyone will start seeing more arrivals in this area and elsewhere.

[dsonyay]

I was outside this evening and wouldn't ya know it- crane flies are out here too. Just a couple of them, so I guess the numbers will start increasing from here on out.