Purple Martin… late this year?

[bbbdco]

I have had a colony of purple Martins for 26 years. They used to always come on April 24 every year. The last three years they have come around April 10. I live in South Dakota and this year the weather was extremely cold late into the spring. I have three purple Martin poles with a total of 44 gourds. I got the poles up on April 12, Sunday. My first birds showed up on Wednesday, April 15. Around seven birds appeared. But now it seems most of them have disappeared and there’s only about three of them flying around. Do you think the rest are still coming or why is it taking longer this year than usual? Could my birds have run into a storm somewhere, or are they just taking longer to arrive then they did the last three years. It seems like in the past I would end up with about 30 pairs of birds and this year I can only see like three or four flying around. Perhaps I’m just impatient? Last year I fledged about 80 baby birds after fighting and killing sparrows all summer. So I’ve had very good success the last three years with the breeding. It just seems like they’re coming in a little differently this year. I sometimes wonder if my birds ran into a storm somewhere or something happened to them. Can anybody give me suggestions? Or do I just need patience? :-) even My Neighbor who has a pull up wondered what’s going on?

[Dave Reynolds]

..... Our first Martins came on April 29 this year. They were here on April 19 last year. So about 10 days late.. We had 6 Martins here about 10 to 12 days before the other Martins started showing up and when they did, they came in waves.. We are up to about 34 Martins now and about on schedule. So hang in there.. they are coming.. Good Luck

Dave.