Missing babies
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glmcvickers
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:15 pm
- Location: Hohenwald/Tennessee
I did a nest check in one of my Troyer horizontal gourds on the 12th and there were 6 HD young. On the 16th there were 6 but one was in the tunnel and cold and one on the side of the nest. I put them both back in the nest with the rest. Today there are none. This is the first year I have participated in Martin Watch and already it is nerve racking....I can't stand it if anything happens to them. Will PM's remove dead young from their nest?
Highland Rim Purple Martin's rock!!!!
2014 - 52 cavities, 44 pair, 175 E's
2014 - 52 cavities, 44 pair, 175 E's
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Louise Chambers
- Site Admin
- Posts: 6208
- Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:07 pm
- Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Parents often remove dead young if they are small, but may leave some in the nest, too. Larger young are more likely to be left in the nest.
Subadult males will remove small young, and sometimes eggs - it's sad but it happens.
Hopefully your pair with missing young will renest - there is plenty of time for that. Thanks for checking on your birds - no, it's not always fun, but I hope you'll find at the end of the season, you enjoyed seeing what happened, and learned how to manage your site better next year.
Subadult males will remove small young, and sometimes eggs - it's sad but it happens.
Hopefully your pair with missing young will renest - there is plenty of time for that. Thanks for checking on your birds - no, it's not always fun, but I hope you'll find at the end of the season, you enjoyed seeing what happened, and learned how to manage your site better next year.