cold spring in central mn

[MarkinMn]

Just checking in...having a real cold start here in central Mn....please chime in and let me know if anyone is having luck with supplimental feeding...can't seem to get them to go after any crickets that i fling yet.....have found 1 dead adult male martin so far.....forcast doesn't look too good thru next week....pls let me know if anyone up here is having any luck....thnks....."stay safe".....mrk

[Tkettle1]

We’ve been flipping crickets and scrambled eggs now for a week and a half in central Wisconsin. This was our first year trying it. Birds were hungry and dropping wings. Had two males at first and it took an hour or so of flipping crickets. I’d flip them right at them and they’d get a good look and then I’d flip a little ways away and one finally got one. After that the other one did also and then we incorporated eggs and they took them also. Today we fed 200 crickets and 3 eggs to 30 martins and the new arrivals all learned quickly form the others. Now going to try getting them to use a feeding tray. Don’t give up! We wasted a lot of crickets but it was worth it, and we haven’t lost any birds

[randyM]

SD is in the same cold, windy and rainy spring pattern as ND, MN and WI. Last spring I trained about a half dozen martins to accept flipped beetles and grasshoppers I collected the autumn before. I flipped many, many insects before one finally decided to chase and catch one. The others learned quickly thereafter. This spring the first early arrival at my colony remembered the routine and caught the first hopper I flipped. I now have over a dozen and and a half martins at my colony and most of them are catching flipped hoppers and beetles. A few others just won't join in on the action yet...perhaps new arrivals? Looks like one day of "nice weather" tomorrow (15 mph winds and high of about 55) so hopefully they can feed on their own for a bit, then back to the cold, wind and rain again for the next 4 days with much below normal temps for 4 more days after that. Hopefully the weather pattern changes to less wind and warmer temps by early May. I had barn swallows and tree swallows at my site last week, but have not seen either of those species since then.

Keep trying to flip insects for them. If your martins won't leave their perch to chase flipped food, wait until they are flying and are getting ready to land on your housing or elevated perches, then try flipping a cricket towards them. Some of last martins I got to catch flipped hoppers this morning would not leave their perch to chase a flipped insect , but when these same birds were in flight before I flipped hoppers they more readily chased and caught insects I flipped towards them. Martins at my site caught over 100 flipped hoppers and beetles this morning and I'll be flipping insects to them again this evening.

[flyin-lowe]

How bad has the weather been? My experience has been martins have to be pretty hungry in order to take flipped food the first time. Once they are trained they will take it easier but if they are not hungry they just sit and watch. So the fact your martins are not going after it might be a good sign. If the weather is bad enough you know for sure they haven't eaten for a couple days, then who knows. People often times say 50 degrees is the magic number temps need to be for them to get flying insects but I have seen mine feeding with temps down in the 40's. Even in the low 40's if there is water nearby, there will be some bugs flying above the water in colder temps.

[MarkinMn]

thanks for the input guys...good idea to flip when they are on "final approach"....they want to take off and fly away when i get close enough to the housing to flip...I flipped about a 100 crickets the other evening and they only just sat and ignored them .....when we get a break in the rain I'll go out and try again....thanks again everyone for responding and , for your support....."stay safe"....mrk

[Rick B]

The weather is not much better here in southeastern Wisconsin. The temps have made it into the 50's today, but the past few weeks have been extremely cold and windy with not much sunshine.
Crickets can seem a bit expensive so I would suggest flipping a few and if they are not watching the cricket fly past them stop and try again in a few hours.
If you get them to catch the crickets I would try flipping scrambled eggs right away. The platform feeder works great when its too windy to toss crickets and eggs. This week feeding about a dozen eggs a day.

Rick

[Dave Duit]

Place the crickets on the porches and just inside their compartments / gourds. Flipping is ok if they are already trained to receive flipped crickets. In my opinion, the martins expend much less energy in eating crickets of their porches, inside compartments rather than flipping style.