what a year
everything has looked great for me this year. i got 22 pair like 105 eggs. then things took a turn for the worst.in a week their was not a day i was not going out and finding a baby missing or dead on the ground. i had one pair with 7 eggs all 7 hatched. then i found one inside the bo11 close to the entrence hole i put it back in the nest bowl. 2 hours later went out found one dead on the ground from the same gourd. then i had a sy pair with only 3 eggs crappy nest eggs on bottom of gourd. checked it and one egg had a small hole looked as if she could done it herself. then next day noticed she was gone and only the male was their. so maybe a hawk got her? correct me if wrong but dont think she would leave those eggs. so lost all 3 of those eggs. then the last week we have had no sun not high temps and rain rain rain. kept finding a dead baby in gourds im guessing due to the weather the martins could not feed them all and took care of the strongest. then i had one gourd with five babys and i found 2 one was dead one so cold and trying to hold on i warmed it up it still died. the last 3 looked so healthy next day i checked the gourd one was gone! next day another was in their dead smelled so bad that fast. so they are in a double gourd with one baby left. i noticed the male has problems getting in and out. dont know if it was weather something wrong with them or female could not feed them all? but i have lost ten babys 3 eggs and not to prediaters. its to many birds to have lost. i want one day to lower my rack and not to find a dead baby.weather is better i just wonder if anyone by me have had some dead babys? i think maybe the martins throw out ones they sence has something wrong with them? i try to smile because if the rest live i will fledge like 91 young compared to 20 last year. fingers crossed.hope everyone else is having a great year.
Kelli, I am having the same problems within fifteen miles or so of your location. The parents are struggling to find enough food to feed the little ones. We have lost 15 in the last ten days. Watching on the camera, instead of the adult birds bringing food in every ten minutes or so, it's only once every half hour so they are definitely having a hard time. If you live in central Ohio and are not doing nest checks, I would recommend it because there are probably some dead young. We need some steady warm weather without the rain. Seems like families over four young cannot be sustained at this time. Hang in there, not allot we can do at this point. Terrychickadee wrote:everything has looked great for me this year. i got 22 pair like 105 eggs. then things took a turn for the worst.in a week their was not a day i was not going out and finding a baby missing or dead on the ground. i had one pair with 7 eggs all 7 hatched. then i found one inside the bo11 close to the entrence hole i put it back in the nest bowl. 2 hours later went out found one dead on the ground from the same gourd. then i had a sy pair with only 3 eggs crappy nest eggs on bottom of gourd. checked it and one egg had a small hole looked as if she could done it herself. then next day noticed she was gone and only the male was their. so maybe a hawk got her? correct me if wrong but dont think she would leave those eggs. so lost all 3 of those eggs. then the last week we have had no sun not high temps and rain rain rain. kept finding a dead baby in gourds im guessing due to the weather the martins could not feed them all and took care of the strongest. then i had one gourd with five babys and i found 2 one was dead one so cold and trying to hold on i warmed it up it still died. the last 3 looked so healthy next day i checked the gourd one was gone! next day another was in their dead smelled so bad that fast. so they are in a double gourd with one baby left. i noticed the male has problems getting in and out. dont know if it was weather something wrong with them or female could not feed them all? but i have lost ten babys 3 eggs and not to prediaters. its to many birds to have lost. i want one day to lower my rack and not to find a dead baby.weather is better i just wonder if anyone by me have had some dead babys? i think maybe the martins throw out ones they sence has something wrong with them? i try to smile because if the rest live i will fledge like 91 young compared to 20 last year. fingers crossed.hope everyone else is having a great year.
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Guest
Hi Alice,
I live in Plano, IL and this is my first year of putting up a martin house. I did it on June 4th and right away 3 subbies showed up, but only two ended up staying, one abandoned the nest half way through. It looked like they were always coming from the west, so maybe they are yours.
Everything was going great but then my S&K house became infested with sparrows, and even though I've tried to eliminate them, they have still managed to destroy the one and only nest that I had in a six room house.
I live in Plano, IL and this is my first year of putting up a martin house. I did it on June 4th and right away 3 subbies showed up, but only two ended up staying, one abandoned the nest half way through. It looked like they were always coming from the west, so maybe they are yours.
Everything was going great but then my S&K house became infested with sparrows, and even though I've tried to eliminate them, they have still managed to destroy the one and only nest that I had in a six room house.terry, it sounds like the same thing that has happen to me has happen at your place with this weather we have had. thats kind of a relief for me i guess. because i was really starting to worry what was going on. i lower my house everyday.thats not a lie. one reason has been to right down what gourds have hatched and to keep an eye out since the weather has been bad. and not to mention the baby bird i have to pump air out of everyday.lol) i hope not to find any more dead birds. a nice man called me last night from florida.he is from another martin sight. and he gave me information i did not know.one thing being sy single males could be throwing babys out. when i seen sy males going porch to porch peeking in i figured it was my birds. but i guess it could be sy males up to no good. so mix with that and weather i guess you are right not a hole lot we can do at this point. thanks for posting.i hope the weather gets better for us.
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Fredmyyster
- Posts: 280
- Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:30 pm
- Location: Tennessee/ Nashville
Chick hi, well, it isnt because you didnt try your best. Ive had problems with sparrows and i have taken prolly 150 shots this year and only beaned 1 and thats cuz as soon as it heard my rifle fire it flewup and into the pellet lol Ive already decided im going to pay the 3 to 400 clams next year to buy a custom deadon type rifle. Good luck to you 
Empty POOLS are a Delight ! !
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Caroline94535-ND
- Posts: 337
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 10:12 am
- Location: North Dakota/Larimore
- Martin Colony History: Will add later
I'm sorry to hear of all your losses. This seems to be a bad year everywhere.
My eggs have just begun hatching. We've had so much rain and hard winds and COLD temps ever since the PMs arrived. Today is sunny, with 25 MPH winds and hot temps. I can only hope the birds will be able to eat and feed their young. I had two chicks and 66 eggs as of Monday. I'll do another nest check this evening after the rack is shaded.
As for the "tiny hole in an egg"...that is the classic calling card from a House Wren. They will enter the gourds/house/nestbox of any and all cavity nesters and "pin" an egg or two (of all of them) with their sharp beak.
You're fortunate the wren pinned only one egg. I try to discourage the house wrens from nesting in my yard, but there's only so much we can do, since they are a protected species, too.
You can continue to remove their nesting material as long as they haven't layed the first egg. After tearing out two or three well made nests they usually just move on. Of course, they will still continue to pin any eggs in "their territory."
Under no circumstances should you let them nest in a martin house or gourd.
My eggs have just begun hatching. We've had so much rain and hard winds and COLD temps ever since the PMs arrived. Today is sunny, with 25 MPH winds and hot temps. I can only hope the birds will be able to eat and feed their young. I had two chicks and 66 eggs as of Monday. I'll do another nest check this evening after the rack is shaded.
As for the "tiny hole in an egg"...that is the classic calling card from a House Wren. They will enter the gourds/house/nestbox of any and all cavity nesters and "pin" an egg or two (of all of them) with their sharp beak.
You're fortunate the wren pinned only one egg. I try to discourage the house wrens from nesting in my yard, but there's only so much we can do, since they are a protected species, too.
You can continue to remove their nesting material as long as they haven't layed the first egg. After tearing out two or three well made nests they usually just move on. Of course, they will still continue to pin any eggs in "their territory."
Under no circumstances should you let them nest in a martin house or gourd.
~ Not all those who wander are lost.
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Guest
Thank you so much for replying Alice!
I started out without a clue, I actually by mistake thought that tree swallows that made a nest last year in my decoration gnome bird house were martins.
After a bad storm ripped their house out the tree all but one of their babies have died and for a few days while I took care of it I became pretty attached. So I decided to get a martin house for next year, but I really didn't know if I would get any martins, because when I spoke to anyone about it, they would tell me how rare it is to attract martins.
The martin house that I've purchased was S&K 12 room, I've followed the instructions and expanded it into 6 rooms. I didn't get it up till June 4th, but right away the next day there were 3 martins. One of them would always come first and sing such a beautiful song, then the other two would circle around, then land and just hang out, then all of them went away for a while, then they came back again. Twice there were six of them circling above my house, but only two started to bring nesting material constantly in the morning (it could've been during the day too, but I normally work then). And here is where my trouble with sparrows began, one started to build a nest immediately after the martins, but on the other side of the house. I ordered the universal trap, but it was horrible in the mean time, I had to take out its nest daily. I believe that caused one of the martins abandon the nest building half way into it. The other martin continued and made an amazing nest, it looked like a little fort, as if she was trying to completely block herself in. My trap arrived around the same time she was done building her nest. I trapped sparrow immediately, but then four more came, they were absolutely horrible, they were all over, martins tried to block them away during the day, but then they would leave in the evening. Sparrows would also beat them back in the morning coming by at 4am, I would start trapping them, martin/s would be back by 6:30am circling above the house till I would go away. They've always came till one day sparrows managed to take over and completely ruin their nest, they pooped all over and even put some feathers in it. I did manage to trap them all before martins showed up that day, but it didn't matter because female wouldn't go into her destroyed nest, the male was chirping and female was circling around and not going in. After that day they never came back. I was heartbroken, but it was for the best because three more sparrow started to make nests next day, they all are gone now...
I am glad that you have mentioned the gourds, I really like them a lot and looks like martins like them too. Also those are exactly the ones that am getting for the next year. I will start with 12 of Troyer (6 vertical and 6 horizontal) gourds with crescent entrances, since unfortunately I also have starlings in the area. Feeder sounds interesting, I will definitely check it out...
Thank you, again!
I started out without a clue, I actually by mistake thought that tree swallows that made a nest last year in my decoration gnome bird house were martins.
After a bad storm ripped their house out the tree all but one of their babies have died and for a few days while I took care of it I became pretty attached. So I decided to get a martin house for next year, but I really didn't know if I would get any martins, because when I spoke to anyone about it, they would tell me how rare it is to attract martins. The martin house that I've purchased was S&K 12 room, I've followed the instructions and expanded it into 6 rooms. I didn't get it up till June 4th, but right away the next day there were 3 martins. One of them would always come first and sing such a beautiful song, then the other two would circle around, then land and just hang out
, then all of them went away for a while, then they came back again. Twice there were six of them circling above my house, but only two started to bring nesting material constantly in the morning (it could've been during the day too, but I normally work then). And here is where my trouble with sparrows began, one started to build a nest immediately after the martins, but on the other side of the house. I ordered the universal trap, but it was horrible in the mean time, I had to take out its nest daily. I believe that caused one of the martins abandon the nest building half way into it. The other martin continued and made an amazing nest, it looked like a little fort, as if she was trying to completely block herself in. My trap arrived around the same time she was done building her nest. I trapped sparrow immediately, but then four more came, they were absolutely horrible, they were all over, martins tried to block them away during the day, but then they would leave in the evening. Sparrows would also beat them back in the morning coming by at 4am, I would start trapping them, martin/s would be back by 6:30am circling above the house till I would go away. They've always came till one day sparrows managed to take over and completely ruin their nest, they pooped all over and even put some feathers in it. I did manage to trap them all before martins showed up that day, but it didn't matter because female wouldn't go into her destroyed nest, the male was chirping and female was circling around and not going in. After that day they never came back. I was heartbroken, but it was for the best because three more sparrow started to make nests next day, they all are gone now...I am glad that you have mentioned the gourds, I really like them a lot and looks like martins like them too. Also those are exactly the ones that am getting for the next year. I will start with 12 of Troyer (6 vertical and 6 horizontal) gourds with crescent entrances, since unfortunately I also have starlings in the area. Feeder sounds interesting, I will definitely check it out...
Thank you, again!