Late in Missouri?

[Guest]

We live around Warrensburg, MO....approx 50 miles East of Kansas City. We've only seen a couple of Martins checking out our houses...but nothing more. Are they late coming North this year? Ours have always arrived in late March.

We had a bad experience with a racoon last year....very few babies survived. I'm now worried that the adults won't return to us again. I'm just really hoping they are late.

Also..I wonder what the effect of the hurricanes last year will have on the Martins? Were those colonies in the South wiped out?

[Darryl Sparlin]

Billie,
Let's just hope that your martins are arriving late. When you say
you had a problem with a raccoon I'm assuming you must not have had
a predator guard on your pole. Did any of the young birds fledge?

Normally if the adult birds are successful in raising young and they make
it through the migration they will return I guess that is unless they had a real bad experience with a predator such as a snake or owl or hawk, or as in your case a raccoon. Don't give up on them though as they
could show up anytime an the Sy birds are just now starting to head this
way from the south. My colony is just now starting to pick up in size. Last
year I had 70 pair and as of today I only have around 25 pair so we have
a quite a ways to go yet.Unless the hurricanes did have some kind of effect on them last year. I guess we will just have to wait and see what the
outcome is this year.

I wish you all the luck I can!!!

[CraigMo.]

I agree with Darryl, I think they are a little later this year, mine were , and I usually have more martins by now. I think they are starting to come in now.

[Guest]

Ok...I'm glad to hear from folks in this area that their birds are a little late. We did have one house of young birds fledge. We did have the wire guard around the houses but no predator guard on the pole. We learned a costly lesson...that the owl guards mean nothing to a coon. It actually sat on top of the house and ate the babies....a sad site to discover in the morning. We've had these Trio houses up for 4 years and never a problem. Now we have pole guards and owl guards around every house.

We've got a couple of holes open on each house...and throw out the sparrow nests daily. We are anxioulsy and patiently waiting for our Martins to return to the farm they have enjoyed for so many years.

[ozarkbill]

mine are late also. I checked some other sites and they had no birds either. Mine were very late last year and seems like this year will be the same.

[Bob Rogers]

Most landlords who have hosted martins for years, will readily admit that they have had predation at some time on their colony. My area of Missouri, it is hawks or an occasional owl. I have been amazed how much my colony has been bothered by hawks and still continue on. Some landlords on the forum have lost their colonies to predation --- check the archives. If you take all the steps you can against predation, it's than up to the PM's and mother nature beyond that