Minnesota Martins Starving

[Kelly Applegate~MN]

As if last year's die-off of young wasn't bad enough, Minnesota has been hit again with bad weather, this time killing the adults. My phone has been ringing off the hook the last two days with reports of dying martins, and birds that are starving and too weak to fly. Many are reporting that the birds are packing into just a few cavities to conserve heat. Some landlords have their martins already trained to take supplemental feeding, and many others have their martins taking crickets & scrambled eggs, which is saving their birds.

One landlord reported that of the 50 birds he had last weekend, many have disappeared, at least 3 have died already, a couple were brought indoors to be rehabbed, and there are only 12 birds staying the night in his housing.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to get much better, but it might come a day to late for many adult martins here.

[Veronica G]

I spoke to a martin landlord I know in Minnesota (whom I met through the PMCA ) the other night, and he reported the same thing. Nearly all of his martins have disappeared. He's lost some bluebird nestlings to hypothermia too. He's told me about the disastrous season you folks had last year, so I sure hope it warms up for you guys up there soon.

Veronica

[Doug Martin - PA]

It's been bad here too in western Pensylvania. They barely stayed alive for today when the weather finally improved.

My ASY male stayed over but leaves and doesn't return till eve. Been doing that for 5 days now. He looked awful this morning. I expect he'll be a new man this evening after being able to feed well.

I knew I should have ordered crickets. They were way off on the forecast the last few days missing by 15 degrees.

Hope you can save them there. It sure is sad.

Doug

[Wendell Hansen-IA]

Landlord from MN call me yesterday at about 9:30 am. Told him what I would do. Long story short. At 5:15 pm he had 22 martins in a home made cage. They eat 60.00$ worth of crickets and mealworms in no time at all. I'll try and get him to post his story..

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

Same story here at my neighbors coloney. The other day he found a adult male on the ground and brought it in the house and called me about it. We fed it scrambled eggs several times and put it in a box over nite. It was fed again next morning several times and then released. But later that day a female was found dead under the housing . A nest check will be done this weekend when the weather improves to see if there are any dead bird in my gourds or his housing.

[Trishy]

It has been rough with the weather. I have fed over 2000 crickets in the last few days with just 10 martins. Luckily I had a pair return from last year that I had already trained to get crickets and the rest of them caught on fast. Most of them are now finally eating out of a tray, but I still fling crickets for the ones that haven't taken to tray feeding yet. I have one pair of bluebirds with babies and I have been feeding them mealworms morning and night and they supplement with crickets during the day if they beat the martins to them. Thankfully it is suppose to warm up tomorrow, but if landlords have not been supplement feeding, I am sure there are a lot of dead martins up here. Does this happen every year or did I just start my colony at a bad time? I love my martins, but my goodness it is a challenge to keep them alive at times. I had 2 pair last year and lost one entire nest to bad weather. This year is starting off bad also. I sure will be glad to see some sunshine.

[Martin man RI]

Hi Kelly
I would be prepared for the worst. Having had the experience here in New England the population is just now back to normal The last wk of May
2005 It rained four days most all the ASY in The New England states perished along with many early SY. Had to be the worst day of my life.
My older site has never got Martins back. But I moved on and have build
up a good number of birds in my new Home Town Barrington.
Mother nature can be so cruel. The springs of 2000,01,02,03 were all bad when 2005 hit that was it the last of them and many young were decimated. And the springs since have been much better and the birds are
making progress and now nesting in area's they have been absent.
I wish you all the best. But keep in my they will make a comeback
and it will be much faster in these modern units we all use.
Ray

[Linda Reynolds]

Kelly, I feel so badly for those of you in our northern range, as I know it is not easy, AND Mother Nature very rarely cooperates.

I am happy to read that some landlords already have their martins trained to accept supplemental feeding. I KNOW that that effort saves birds.

Even some of us in the south are experiencing less than optimal feeding conditions as we now have many, many nestlings. Natural food is available, but because of high winds, and lots and lots of rain it is not plentiful. The adults have many mouths to feed in our area right now, and only due to supplemental feeding, am I assured those at our colony are doing okay.

Attached is a photo taken at our place on May 10th. Surprising to see so many stressed adults in the south at this time, but Mom Nature has dealt us a late season whammy this time.

Kelly, I know you are doing all that you can to help others and I sincerely hope your efforts will help other landlords save birds. Our thought and wishes for success are with all of you in the north.

[trank]

Hi Kelly, some how I knew a post like this was coming. For the last 7 or 8 days I've been feeding due to the terrible weather that we just can't seem to get a break from.
The amount of food being consumed here is incredible. On an average day we've been feeding 5000 freeze dried mealworms along with scrambled eggs and the martins that won't feed off a platform feeder I put crickets in their nesting compartments. Even at that I do have a couple martins that will not eat either off a platform or from the inside of their nests, there the ones I'm most concerned about.
We sure could use a break from this weather because we certainly don't need a repeat of last july.

Tom

[Bob Buskas]

Here is a few tips from a wonderful caring landlord in Winnipeg Manitoba. I hope it will help save some adults .

I offer all forms of feeding during inclement
weather...crickets on porches (you can put them in the compartment as long
as you don't have nesting material in there. It gets covered up otherwise.
Putting them on the porches makes them more obvious to the birds. Mealworms
in small containers in which the mealworms cannot climb up and out of, and
mealworms, eggs and crickets on a feeding tray close to purple martin house.
When tossing eggs you have to be determined as it can take some time to
trigger the old birds memories and also clue in the new ones. I pretty much
throw the eggs just above the birds heads while they are sitting on their
porches or perched on rods. You almost need to hit them with the egg (and I
have at times), you need to get so close that they start to open their beaks
as it goes by them. This worked for us with a few new birds that were not
familiar with supplemental feeding. Again, the key is to be determined and
not give up as it could take you a few days to get them going, but it will
pay off in the end. I have 30 birds and every single bird is feeding so
don't give up. Now when my birds are hungry they either fly to my low roof
right by my patio doors or as soon as I walk out the doors some birds will
start flying towards me. They actually get pretty demanding after a while.
Yesterday morning a male landed on my head (I was wearing a hat thank
goodness as they have sharp claws...One nicked me while feeding a few days
ago...) As he sat on my head I tossed a piece of egg and he flew off to
grab it....Good luck to you Bob, your colony must be growing by leaps and
bounds each day!

One more tip: I fed every few hours during this weather. Because martins
feed on the wing and eat constantly they don't generally eat until they are
full....They eat a bit then stop, eat a bit more then stop....so if you have
the time this works well and keeps them strong so they can get through the
lousy weather. Its amazing to watch all these martins flying around looking
strong and fit during absolutely crappy weather. Take care.....Anne

[Guest]

Fortunetly here in Southwest Michigan we had only about one day that got pretty cold, where it also rained most of the day. The rest of the days were warm enough for the martins to get food. After having a very slow start and getting my first ASY pair the end of April I now have around 3 pairs. Last year at this time I already had around 15-20 martins and most of my SY's were back. This year I still have not seen any SY's yet.

[Louise Chambers]

Kelly,

This is such a shame. Thankfully some MN landlords are feeding and are keeping not only their birds alive, but birds from nearby sites that join the hungry throngs. I know many parts of MN are not looking for good numbers of subadults this year, after last summer's die off that killed so many nestlings. The ones that do arrive will be a very valuable part of recovery.

We're hearing about the problem at the PMCA too. Some have lost all the adults that had returned this year.

The good work the MN martin group has done in teaching others how to care for their colonies, and about supplemental feeding, has kept losses from being much worse. Thanks for all you and your group are doing to help martins.

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

Thankfully the weather was much better today with temps in the 70's and sunshine. I went to check on my neighbors colonies and at one there were mrtins around and looking pretty good but at the other coloney where I have some gourds I was greeted by dead silence. Hopefully they were out feeding, I was there about 1:30 or so. I talked to the owner of the first site tonite and he kept 8 martins overnite in his house last nite they most likley would have perished if left outside. He just walked around and picked them up off the ground. I had helped him and his wife feed a martin the nite before and he and his wife and kids fed scrambled eggs to the eight several times last nite and this morning before releasing them. He said that tonite there were about 13 of them around and were looking pretty good. We will be doing a nest check tomorrow afternoon.

[Bob Buskas]

Wonderful news Donnie, it takes people like you and your neighbors to care enough to keep the breeders alive as you did. They will nest this year and next. The numbers will recover so much faster in the next few years only because you cared enough to keep them alive. Thank you and your neighbors for what you have done. Sleep well tonight.

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

We did a nest check this afternoon and bettween both colonies we found only five dead birds, three males and two females one of which was banded here in MN. I have contacted Kelley Aplegate and gave him the band numbers will find out soon where and when the bird was banded.

[Wendell Hansen-IA]

The numbers are starting to pile up here in northwest Iowa. Out of about 30 of us, it's about 50+ bird's now. One landlord had 22 to start and is down to one. The Landlords that made out the best had wood house's the next in line were the one's that had super gourd's. Any landlord that had a metal or plastic house had the highest death toll.

We have had two day's of outstanding weather now. Day one everyone was out picking up dead and counting the live one's. Day two the landlords that had metal, plastic and thin wall gourds are wondering were there martin's went? And the landlords with wood house's, super and troyer gourds are wondering were did all the matin's come from?

I don't know? Could it be that after such a high death toll at the site's with plastic and metal housing that the living would go and look for something better? I still have a lot of door's to knock on and if this trend keep's up, then I will have the prove that I have been looking for.

At all of my lectures, I tell everyone if you can drive on the ice to go fishing, with plastic and mental housing, you just sent your matins to death row.

Iam still trying to get my MN landlord to post his story. Anyone who would go out and spend 125.00 buying cricket's, meal worms and wax worms from pet stores and bait shops in just two days to save 22 out 26 martins, is all right in my book. Yes what he did was illegal. But there was no rehab in his area, and he just could not set back and watch his birds die anymore.

[Sharon Wangen, MN]

I checked my nests today at about 11am, found 4 dead martins, one inside a T-14 nest and 3 in a gourd on my gourd rack, I had found 2 dead the day before. Three males and three females total. The rest of them are looking really good. I am so relieved that it wasn't any worse. I think I had more Martins hanging around than I had room for so I think I'll still have a full house, the subs haven't gotten here yet. I have had a lot of sparrows too this year. I even had a starling lay 5 eggs in one of my "crescent shaped" gourds right under my nose and I didn't even know it until one evening just at dusk I saw the starling fly down to the rack and back up into the tree, back and forth until it finally went into the gourd and kicked out a pair of Martins, I was shocked! I had to lower the gourd rack right at dark time and tossed out the 5 eggs and then I had to screw on part of a plastic entrance "cover" that I had. I put it on top of the opening, making the entrance smaller so the starling could not get in. The opening was too big and I had no idea. this was a commercial gourd. Thank goodness the Martins were not scared off, they were able to get in and I haven't seen any sign of the starling yet. I did catch one in my house trap the next day, so maybe it was the same one.

[Sharon Wangen, MN]

I just read Wendells post. He is right. I think I have saved many because most of my compartments are the T-14 and a super gourd rack. I have one metal trio house that I made double compartments out of it. I only have 4 spots for Martins, and the other 4 single rooms have sparrow traps. I bought the house just to catch the sparrows. I think the two pairs of Martins I have that like the trio house now, have spent the nights buddied up in the T-14. One day I was lowering my T-14 to reset a sparrow trap, (there are 4 troyer horizontal gourds mounted under it) as I was lowering the house I looked up and counted the number that flew out, I counted 27! with one gourd, more than two had come out.

[Sharon Wangen, MN]

Donnie,
what did the bands look like? what colors? was there two? a silver one and a red one? I had a few of my babies banded last season just before the cold spell hit. I lost about 5 or 6 of the newly banded ones during the cold spell.
Mine had a silver band on one leg and a red band on the other. i haven't seen any banded birds yet at my place. If any come they'd come when the subbies return since they would be subs too. I wonder if yours was from my place?

[Jim Spetzman]

I lost 14 babys from last summer and I had 6 martins come to my house this year. Yesterday, I saw the others were reluctant to go inside and I droped down the house and had 1 dead adult in there. I am happy that is all I lost. The next week looks like warmer weather so I hope all the problems are gone for a while. Jim