Bouncing back in Texas

[G Saner]

On February 9th, I counted 8 martins that returned to roost at my satellite colony. After the storm, I only found 5 martins dead but I don't think any martin could have survived those temperatures for over one week. On February 21st, no martins roosted.

I can't be at my site every night because it is 5 miles from my house. On February 24th, I counted 4 martins and on February 27th, 9 martins. In February, I only put out gourds on one of the two poles. Late this afternoon I attached the other 12 gourds and waited for dusk. Tonight, I counted 13 returning martins. All roosted in the gourds on the pole that had been out for over a month.

Most of my colony must have been spread out between Brazil and Mexico when the storm hit. The ones south of the storm were lucky and survived.

I have such an open site on a river that I think I will recover totally. Last year I only had one SY male out of 24. This year, I should have room for a few more first year birds.

[deancamp]

It's good to hear everyone down South that lost birds to the extreme cold is starting to rebound now. I agree with only one sy male last year you should be able to hold steady on your numbers. Good luck.

[G Saner]

Martins continue to arrive at my colony. Last night I counted 20 (plus or minus) that returned to roost. They are beginning to be too many to get an exact count. I am happy that my colony is bouncing back but sad to lose my oldest most experienced breeders. The worst thing is I won't be pushing as many martins out to new colonies this year. Last year I had 24 out of 24 gourds occupied.

[C.C.Martins]

Well the martins are coming, thank the good Lord the storm didn't arrive a week or two later. Our birds intercepted 40 or 50 migrants last night, most of ours were already in, a lone male resident brought them in. They wheeled around making dives but stayed in tight formation. Male went in and these flew off west. There were alot of birds!
Our neighbor down the street got permission from his wife to put up a system, so I'm gifting 8 supergourds and a lonestar gourd rack. We dug the hole, waiting for the ground stake and up it goes in time for the young birds.

[G Saner]

It is very hard to get an exact count at dusk but I would estimate I now have thirty something martins. Barn Swallows feed in the same airspace as the martins making it even harder. The SY males are starting to arrive and fill in for the martins lost to the freeze.

Twice I have seen a Cooper's Hawk. He seems to be feeding on doves so I removed the two bird feeders I have outside the center's dining room. The martins are acting normal and sitting on the top perches and owl guards. I think the openness of my site (and all those martin eyes) are making it hard for the hawk to catch a martin.

I probably won't have 24 for 24 occupancy like last year but should be in the 20 pair range.

[Whippy]

That's great news, G.

I am also receiving more birds. I don't have an exact count in the evening as they all come in so fast and in small groups. My hawk issue has gone away, not sure how, but the big male Coopers doesn't come here any more. Just a few minutes ago I sat outside with my coffee and observed 20 to 30 martins in my airspace. Not the numbers I was expecting after last year but good enough considering what we have been through.

If the SY's continue to come I have plenty of rooms for them. If I get more females, my ASY males will be happy. I'm still running about 80% more ASY males than females of any age.

Thank you for the update.

Coolwhips

[G Saner]

Whippy,

I think more females are born compared to males. That is why some SY males end up as bachelors. You should be balancing out soon. You can bet your males are out searching for a gal to bring back to your yard. However, of the five martins I found dead after the freeze, four were females.

Can't wait to hear how many pair you get in your two houses.

Gary

[G Saner]

Correction: more males are born compared to females. But 80% shouldn't last.

[Whippy]

Correction: more males are born compared to females. But 80% shouldn't last.

Gotcha.

It appears I have a couple new ASY males this morning. They are easy to pick out since they are the ones preening and scratching as well as popping back and forth between the gourd rack and the T-14 and Trio set up. No new females to speak of.

We have favorable winds all the way from Venezuela and Guyana as well as from deep within Brazil so maybe in the next week or so we will see a huge deposit of SY birds and late arriving ASY birds.

Obviously I'll continue to update. I'm going to do a nest check late this afternoon when they are all out feeding. I lost one of my favorite males to the hawk but no other has shown an interest in his gourd so I gotta check out why.

I'm rambling now. Sorry.

Coolwhips

[C.C.Martins]

Hey whippy,
Very glad to hear that hawk problem is behind you, feared the worst.

[G Saner]

I conducted my first nest check of the year this morning. Lots of nesting activity but so far, no eggs. Last year on this date, 11 pair had already started laying. I prefer the martins to start laying in April so their young fledge by mid-June.

Every gourd had a nest but I won't have an exact count until all eggs are laid. My site is 5 miles from my home so I can't get a good read on the number of martins. Guessing from this nest check, we could have another 24 for 24 year or at least 20 to 22 active nests.

[G Saner]

I did another nest check this morning and found only one nest that had eggs. Very late this year laying.

This time, I took my binoculars and stayed for a little more research. Of the 20 gourds I could see from the patio, I recorded pairs with15 ASY males, 4 SY males and a SY bachelor checking out "his" gourd. The four gourds on the other side I could not clearly see do have nests and some had martins flying to them but I could not positively identify the male's age.

Looking back at records, I found that around half of the pair started laying eggs in April in past years. Part of the lateness can be attributed to losing 8 martins to the deep freeze. These were the colony's oldest birds. Even if they start laying now, their young will not fledge until the last week of June. That's later than I would like.

[Archer]

Did you notice any Tree Swallows around during the bad weather? I am up in Manitoba and my martin numbers are normal for this time of year but I am seeing very few Tree Swallows. I am wondering if they took a big hit from the bad weather. There is still lots of time for them to show up but not many here yet. I usually have 6 or so nests on my yard.

[G Saner]

Archer,

I had to look at a range map to answer your question. Some Tree Swallows do winter on the Texas coast so it is possible they were impacted. Maybe our Corpus Christi or Houston forum friends know more on this subject.

My colony has many barn swallows nesting on the Assisted Living Center building and they do not seem to be in any less numbers. Gary

[billb]

Hi all:
Haven't been on in a while, but was also noticing the late start to egg laying. Must have to do with the lack of flying insects post freeze?

I have a full house of 12 pair. Will do a nest check tomorrow, but as of last week, nest building far along, but no eggs. Expect some tomorrow. Could be pretty brutal for a lot of youngsters this season.

For the record, of the nine dead I recovered after the freeze, 7 were ASY males.

[C.C.Martins]

No eggs here still, although they have seemed to have really started building nests. We got 5.5 inches of rain in two days sort of jump started things but they are way behind...and yep i think it was the cold. Going to be a tough summer, dodging hurricanes...little food.
Tomorrow I suspect ill find a few, like you, we shall see. Males have started dawn singing.

[Archer]

Thanks for your reply G Saner. Tree Swallow numbers are improving, a few nests have been claimed, with more scouting around.

[G Saner]

Well, my martins are making up for lost time. One week ago, I only found 3 eggs in one nest. Today, 20 nests have a total of 88 eggs. I don't believe I have ever had so many clutches initiated during such a short period. Normally they are spread out over 2 or 3 weeks. Late June is going to have a lot of fledglings in the air during those days.

The four gourds without eggs do have nests. In one of them, I found the female dead on the nest 10 days ago. That male has attracted a new mate already. Two others have SY pair in them and the fourth gourd has a bachelor SY male.

Last year, I only had one SY pair. This year, I have five (six if the bachelor finds a gal). They have made up for the 8 martins I lost in February to the cold weather. Gary

[G Saner]

This morning's nest check showed eggs or young in all 24 gourds. Even though I lost 8 martins to the freeze and found one female dead in a gourd a few weeks ago, I have matched last year's occupancy. The reason for this is that SY martins took advantage of the vacancies. Last year, I had 1 SY pair and this year I have 6 SY pair. The site is very good and those young birds are attracted to an established colony.

Total eggs are 126. This year, I have a clutch of 8. I looked back at my records and only had a clutch of eight one other time. That was in 2010 and they managed to fledge 7. When looking back in the notebooks, I noticed that martins laid more eggs in my SuperGourds compared to the unmodified Trio cavities I had years ago. The bigger the cavity the bigger the clutch. Trio cavities usually had 4 or 5 eggs with 6 being a possibility. The SuperGourds had 5 or 6 eggs with 7 sometimes. This is in general.

Now I just hope the hot weather holds off for these late laying martins.

[G Saner]

Yesterday's nest check showed that our first nest had fledged three babies. The other 23 gourds have 102 babies. The weather seems to be holding without temperatures in the high nineties. This year, 11 pair are scheduled to fledge their young in a two day period next weekend. That should be a real circus.

The female with 8 eggs hatched them all and the parents have 8 healthy young. These young are neatly spread out on the nest so each baby gets to eat. This pair of martins are super parents.

I wish I would have known the year would have turned out so well when I was removing dead martins from the gourds back in February. Gary