Difficult year - My King was dethroned. (Note the date)

[Doug Martin - PA]

This sure has been a difficult year. Although there are fledglings scattered everywhere in the rain and storms of late, my numbers are not as good as last year.

First we had extreme cold after egg laying began. This lead to small clutches or bad eggs. This also caused some nests now to be fledging while others are still on eggs or just hatching. There is a huge disparity in age in the housing.

This then leads to difficulty in doing nest checks. As it is best to avoid this when young are sticking heads out ready to fledge. The past few weeks have been very wet and stormy. Now we got wet nests and blowfly making the scene. There are nests that need changed that are wet and smelly while fledging is occurring.

To add insult to injury a very aggressive group of subadult males are trying stake claim to the gourds that have recently fledged young. This includes my colony founder's gourd since 2009. He brought the family back for the night only to be taken to the ground repeatedly by a tenacious SY male that claimed his gourd while the family was away for the day. He fought and fought but could not win.

So you can see what a chaotic year I am having. Meanwhile heavy storms are pounding fledglings daily and continuing to soak nests. I had to break up a fight in a gourd and lowered the one rack at 8:00PM yesterday. A SY male in a nest with 4 young only a week old. The parents were trying to get him out.

That's my update. It's a wild ride here. I still got subbies yet to nest too.

Doug

[KathyF]

Wow Doug - so sorry you're having a tough time! It's either a drought year or a soaker of a year.

You're a strong, resilient landlord - hang in there - someday, you'll look back on this year with fondness. (ok, maybe not, but I'm sure it made you smile) .

[Sue P]

Doug, things up there sound like things down here. I am fighting the blow fly battle (though I may win this one) but the wet nests, difficulty for parent birds to find food, and aggressive subbies still are a problem. I am sorry about your dethroned male. That is very hard to watch.

As you can see from my post this morning, I was sickened by finding a nest of dead babies, the result being blow flies. I won't let the nests go more than a day or two now without checking them. But then there is the problem of the older birds jumping out of their nests.

I guess we really love our martins, or we wouldn't be going through this. There is so much satisfaction to seeing them fly gracefully over, and listening to their happy chatter -- or watching them all zoom in for the night.

Sue P

[Doug Martin - PA]

Kathy & Sue,

I thought this was going to be a peaceful, easy year of a maturing colony. Wow what a mess. The yacking and fighting and drenching just won't stop.

I swear a bunch of new subbies just arrived. They are not here to sing and preen either. Watching my founding male and colony King get pummeled to where he could not get up was very difficult. Reminded me of the Lion King and the circle of life.

Thought I could change a nest or two today. It hasn't stopped raining yet.

This is one year where nature will have to run it's course.

Doug

[dhjohnson]

Doug,
You're not alone in experiencing trials this year. We have endured the cold weather with eggs not hatching and second clutches laid. Additionally, we have 14 single SY males that have carried off a few newly hatched young as well as killing 1 young that was within a week of fledging. His Mom was a single ASY trying to valiently feed her offspring of one that hatched from a clutch of five eggs. Sadly a violent storm took her out and thats when the SY's got the almost ready to fledge youngster. Thankfully, bugs have been plentiful and dragonflys abound. Jolly whoppers this year. We have had sufficient breaks in the rain for pairs to feed young. Everyone is fat and sassy! We are looking for 50+ young to take their first flight this week. Keep the faith...this too will pass and the newly acquired knowledge will add to our experience in the years to come!
Hope the season is fruitful for you!
Debbie

[ron20m]

makes me realize how regional PM landlord business is. We've had terible years due to heat but this year has been my best in 17 years. Been in the 80's all week here and perfect spring rains and bug counts off charts.
So sorry. Frustrating to watch them suffer.

[barry resvick]

Hey Doug!
Just thought id let you know your not alone.Even up here in Alberta,Canada we are getting alot of sub tropic weather as of late.I think its just another reminder that global warming is changing weather patterns everywhere.

[ToyinPA]

Doug:
My colony is doing good. 11 pair & a spare. Lost several eggs due to the cold snap, but at tonights nest check I have 23 chicks & 12 more eggs to go. Altho I know some of them won't hatch.

With all this rain/humidity/etc I only had one nest with mites. Got on it right away & treated both houses just in case.

Had one chick that was only a few days old rolled (or was shoved) out of the nest tray to the opening. When I found him he was looking bad. Cold & sort of yellow belly. I placed him back in the nest. Waited 2 hours & checked him again. His color was better & he was warm. I decided, since he was smaller than the rest, to feed him a few crickets dipped in orange Gatorade. Next day you couldn't tell which one he was .

I had some problems for a short while with SY Males early on, but those that stayed found mates & settled down. The rest left.

I also just got a new ASY Male a few days ago. He's building 2 nests, including mud dams. He has no mate. No idea where he came from, but I am thinking his mate either died or was killed & he left his colony. There are no colonies real close to me, so no idea where he came from.

Blowfly larva can drain a chick in 2-4 days depending on how many are on the chick. I'd risk doing nest checks if you think you have nests with them now....

As far as doing nest check when some are not far from fledging....you might try tapping the pole, which often scares them back into the nest. Then lower slowly & stuff the openings with rags, that have long strings attached you can reach from the ground once housees are raised. Plug the nests that have older chicks in first. I've done this many times. After nests are changed, chicks inspected for pests/etc, raise your housing & let the rags in for about 5 minutes. Then pull them out.

The weather doesn't look too good for the next few days...more rain. Then high heat is to follow. Humidity here has been 90-100%. Like living in a sauna! I flipped crickets this morning to hungry adults. They can't find food with all this rain.

Best wishes,

Toy in PA

[Doug Martin - PA]

I have managed to work though all the housing and get nest changes done.

Can't stress enough how important it is to do these checks and nest changes. I used pieces of swimming pool noodle in the entrances to keep near fledgers in their cavities.

There were a few real bad nests. Found another dead sub adult in one. Another wet with heavy blowfly. Others were fine and dry. Anything fledged replaces with nice clean pine straw.

Now when they come back in the evening there is a nice fresh place for the family at night.

So many extra birds here now. It's a happier group now.

Do nest checks. Change nests. It saves lives.

Happy 4th

Doug

[Doug Martin - PA]

I bumped this thread up because this was the year "Buddy" first made his appearance at my site as a SY sub adult. The '"dethroning" occurred in the same gourd he has faithfully returned to each year. (It's got a SE facing pond view) Thought some might find it interesting because the following year 2014 he was the first to arrive in early March when lakes were still frozen and he survived some of the worst weather a Martin could imagine. He continued to show up very early thereafter.

This first year was extremely wet and cold and I was supplemental feeding most of the summer. So apparently he caught on. We lost a lot of young that year. One particular SY male sure made himself known.

So this leads me to the conclusion "Buddy" was born in 2012 (subbie in 2013) and will be 12 years old this year. Without these prior posts it would be difficult to know. But they created somewhat of a diary of his time at my site throughout the years..


Doug