Late Nesting In Florida

[Gary W]

Hi Folks,

I had an SY female show up in May. She hooked up with an ASY Bachelor at my site, and laid her first egg on June 4th. This is the latest I have ever had a pair nest at my colony. All the ASY pairs have fledged their young. We are heading into the rainy season here in Florida, with 92 degree heat everyday in this subtropical climate. There certainly is no shortage of flying insects here in June and July. We never get into the 100 degree range in my area in the summer, but it is humid everyday. Does anyone have an idea of what are the chances of success for a late nesting pair like this in Florida? I hope everybody continues having a great year!

Gary

[Davlyn]

Hey Gary , same thing here . I am not sure what day she laid her first egg but she is sitting on 4 pretty white eggs . I have never had a pair nest this late . All my others have fledged their young but one that are due to fledge next week . Well see what happens . Good luck !

[jim h]

Hey Gary, this is my first year having martins. I had 3 ASY males showed up on 2-11-10 and they have built a small colony. I have 7 pair with 3 nest having 15 young fledge already. There are 4 nests left with 20 young that should fledge in the next 2-3 weeks.

When doing my nest check on 6-6-10 I found a new nest with 4 eggs in it. I checked the rack again today and there was 5 eggs. I am not sure at this point, but I think it is the ASY pair that fledged there young several weeks ago.
I hope it is the ASY pair as I have been so impressed with how they carry out their duties as parents. For instants, one of the asy adults will almost always be at the entrance guarding the little ones while the other one is out searching for food and will only give up its post when it returns. I think they will stick it out till they hatch and fledge the young. I don’t know if a sub-adult pair will do that.

How about some input from some of you old timers on late nesting and re-nesting.

I am going to post after my martins have left and describe how I was able to go from 2 years of coming up with no martins to having seven or possible eight pair this year..

[Suzette McGowen]

We had a late nest last year, in Texas we had to fight the dry heat and shortage of bugs. We supplemented the bug supply by hand feeding some. Hopefully since you won't experience the shortage or over 100 degree temps this won't be a problem. Do be aware though of the allure of the roost, we had our parents stop staying overnight with the babies. They would come in every day and feed. I found that it helped to add the decoys back to the house, they would come in and investigate. It was when they stopped staying the night that we had to step in and help feed, with the bug shortage and lack of interest of the parents, they were not getting enough to eat. But we did mange to fledge all three birds.

[Suzette McGowen]

We had a late nest last year, in Texas we had to fight the dry heat and shortage of bugs. We supplemented the bug supply by hand feeding some. Hopefully since you won't experience the shortage or over 100 degree temps this won't be a problem. Do be aware though of the allure of the roost, we had our parents stop staying overnight with the babies. They would come in every day and feed. I found that it helped to add the decoys back to the house, they would come in and investigate. It was when they stopped staying the night that we had to step in and help feed, with the bug shortage and lack of interest of the parents, they were not getting enough to eat. But we did mange to fledge all three birds.