It's been raining here off and on since Friday late afternoon. We noticed we have 5 PM's on our house around 2pm today. As some of you know, we lost some of our PM's earlier in the season to starvation. Now we are hyper-vigilant about it and are wondering if these birds need supplemental feeding. We took the house down about 2 hours ago and but some crickets on the porch and in some of the compartments, but only about 40 crickets. Does anyone think we need to do that again? We're a little concerned about making them fly if they need to conserve their energy.
Any input would be appreciated. This season has run the gamut of 40 degree weather in April, 100+ in July and now rain for 3 days.
Martin Colony History: Erected 1st house in 1997. Birds were checking it out before Mike got down from the ladder. Six cavities had a little colony 1st year. Grown to 88 cavities all gourds with near 100% occupancy. Most important factor for success is rain = bugs.
Are there young in the nest still? If the birds you are seeing are trying to feed nestlings, then I would say yes definitely - feed them. Even if these are fledglings with their parents, they still could use your help.
You might try putting the crickets in a cup attached to a stick and just reaching up and delivering more crickets to them. Instead of lowering the house...
It's late now - so, I would wait until tomorrow morning to disturb them again. I'm sorry, I just found your post - I hope all is well at your house.
Well, they were flying around this morning. It was still raining but now it's slacked up a bit.
I found the FAQ on this and it said if it's constantly (underlined) raining to feed them and it's been raining w/ brief periods on no rain...soooooo. I think when I get home from work I'll try your idea of the stick w/ a cup attached to the end and try to throw some up there.
Just bumping this up. Any other Missouri landlords seeing problems ?
I had not thought a moderate rainy period would harm adults now -- nor fledglings who have been out for a few weeks -- but Ren's experience is worrisome. We did have storms in some areas over the weekend -- now off/on light rain.
I'd say a lot would depend on how much "off" time there was between the "on" periods of rain. Five or ten minutes probably wouldn't be enough for them to feed. I don't know just how much time would be required, but I'd think more like half an hour or so. They would have to feed for themselves, plus gather for the babies. Another factor would be the duration of the rain. A few hours? or a few days? Hours wouldn't matter near as much as days would Possibly folks need to keep track of the parents of individual nests and time how long it takes from the time they leave (normally) until they are back. That would give a good indication as to how far away their feeding/food gathering areas were. Then if this time were exceeded during inclement weather, feeding could be started. Unfortunately this wouldn't help this year, but possibly in the future??? I don't think I've ever seen this put into writing, so it's possible others have already done this. This is another case for attempting to get PMs to feed early. Possibly if they had learned it prior, this bird (Thought to be mom) could have been saved. BTW. I am NOT trying to condemn nor make anyone look bad, just thinking the knowledge could help save others another fall. CUL Lou
Are you suggesting 'training' the birds to eat crickets, etc from us prior to the need arising so if the need does arise they will know how? Any other comments on this?
I would never have thought of doing this but feeding them crickets by putting them on the house certainly was of no help this time.
Martin Colony History: Erected 1st house in 1997. Birds were checking it out before Mike got down from the ladder. Six cavities had a little colony 1st year. Grown to 88 cavities all gourds with near 100% occupancy. Most important factor for success is rain = bugs.
Your best opportunity for "training" your colony to accept supplemental food will probably be next spring. You will have to wait for weather conditions that eliminate the PMs natural food source. I have read of many landlords' failed attempts to feed and I have experienced this myself. It is my opinion that a Purple Martin will "not" accept food from a person unless that PM is hungry. Landlords who have successfully trained their colonies have usually started the process with cricket flinging. Then they put dead crickets on a feeder tray and continue flinging over and around the feeder tray until finally a PM discovers the crickets on the tray. Once a single bird is feeding from the tray the rest of them will "learn". This process requires patience and the timing is critical. Trying to feed a PM colony before they are hungry enough to take interest in what you are flinging in front of them; well, it's like beating your head against a brick wall. So, when you begin please remember this; and if you see no interest from the birds, then stop and try again later in the day or the next morning. There is a lot to read on this subject - go to PMCAs Home Page and do a search on "supplemental feeding".
Do you think it is possible the dead bird was actually a fledgling rather than an adult or SY female? A fledgling, or HY (Hatching Year) who has just recently reached its independent age of around 40 days of age would probably have the most trouble finding and catching enough food to sustain itself during poor weather conditions.
One bird returned last night. It looks like one of the babies. Didn't see it this morning. I'm concerned about what will happen to it if it's alone and doesn't leave.
I think the dead bird was an adult and not the male subbie. The beak was black not yellowish.
I checked the dead bird again. The undertail coverts are light, and the chest is light--grayish white, no splotches. The beak is dark and rough looking--not "new and shiny." That led me to think it was the subbie female and not a fledgling, but who knows. The bird is not in the greatest of shape to examine anyway now.
Took the PM house down today and found no more dead birds and no sign of any in the yard etc. So the others maybe made it, we hope so. We will watch for them to return tonight. We only saw the one last night, but didn't see it this morning. May have already flown before I looked at the house. If there is just one fledging left, will it know what to do? Will it find other martins to migrate with? There is supposed to be more rain coming, we just wish the martins would head out before it gets here.
We will research all we can on supplemental feeding before next March and be as prepared as we can. Don't know what else we can do. What a discouraging year.
