Migration Report III-2013

John Barrow · Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:56 pm

Late this evening in Corpus Christi, while watching our local birds come in, a large flow of migrating martins, some traveling in balls, was observed overhead. Several landed on our housing around dark and appear to be younger birds. In my opinion, this is the start of the huge influx of 2 year old martins into the southern USA along the western Gulf of Mexico.
This is the beginning of the PEAK of migration. During the next month we should see arrivals of huge numbers of these younger ASY martins, followed by large numbers of subadults in 3 or 4 weeks. These arrivals have the size and significance to reach far northward and bring martins to any colony in North America.
Watch the wave move northward over the next few weeks. Migration will be taking place in a big way.

I am going to try to bring up an old post of Adrian Hans' site at Port O'Conner, Texas, which demonstrates the significance of arrivals around this same time period.

If you are still waiting you might well enjoy the next few weeks.

jr 2 · Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:07 pm

no martins here yet;;good too hear;;i had 4 pair of sub adult last year so they would be 2 years old now;;jr2

Ed Pace · Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:06 pm

Thanks for the report John this will be interesting to watch, it's what we have been waiting for. I hope the weather comes around before they get to far north.
The supplemental feeding is catching on more and more,or so it seems ,thats good news. Good luck to every one.

Ed.

tonyg · Wed Mar 20, 2013 1:50 am

Thanks John..14 here now..but bad weather coming after tomorrow..will order more crickets tomorrow ..

Sue · Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:53 pm

I always look forward to your migration reports.

LoneOakMartins · Wed Mar 20, 2013 3:47 pm

Thank you John for posting this info. Looking forward to more martins up our way.

Louise Chambers · Wed Mar 20, 2013 3:52 pm

Our first Chimney Swift of the year was flying around with the martins, along with a group of Barn Swallows.

MamaBruff · Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:47 pm

How long will it take them to make it to SW MO? If an ASY female can fly 350 miles per day, she would be here in 2 1/2 days. (Abt 750 miles).... Surely they will hang around in the South and gorge up on insects before moving on... Looking back over the ASY/SY arrivals for my area, I expect the SY's around April 13, give or take a few days.

Louise Chambers · Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:33 pm

Most of the martins tracked with geolocators make the trip home in 2-3 weeks total, from Brazil to their colony sites - that's a pretty speedy return trip! The spring issue of the Update will have maps from some geo birds to give folks a better look at travel routes, speed of trip, etc - it's pretty interesting.

Doug Martin - PA · Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:51 pm

Thanks for the report John.

I think there are some PA birds in that crowd.

Doug

Matt F. · Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:09 pm

Great report John!

John Barrow · Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:38 pm

After making this post Tuesday evening, we had a frontal system pass through Wednesday morning with strong north-northeast winds. I thought that might stall the inflow. But yesterday evening (Wednesday), we had another strong arrival of migrants.

Migration has turned on folks!!!

John Barrow · Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:34 pm

Hi Friends,
This is probably not what some great landlords to our north who are struggling to supplement feed their first arrivals want to hear.

But martins are still pouring into the southern ranges. In Corpus Christi, tonight, despite the arrival of the reinforcing frontal system bringing freezing weather to many and day-long strong north winds, we witnessed approx 100 migrants flying around our colony toward evening, after most of our own birds had come in to guard cavities.

These martins are migrating. Instinct will drive them further north and eastward. Although bad weather might stall and slow migration, I do not believe martins will return south into warmer climates. They will stay at the latitude they have reached and search for warmth and food; whether it be communal roosting, a food source over a hot water outlet, or housing located within a warm spot. At first opportunity they will continue in their predestined direction.

I commend those who are undertaking the effort to keep these arrivals alive. I hope the weather will stablilze in your area. Martins are still coming and their numbers are growing.

Best of luck and wishes to all.
Friends in Texas

Kevin-GA · Mon Mar 25, 2013 12:14 am

Hey John, just wanted to thank you for posting your migration reports. I always enjoy reading about the large groups of migrants and hoping that some of them are headed our way. Today 3/24 we had the largest influx of martins this year, probably around 25 or so. Our numbers have now reached around 150 martins, there's no way to count them, but both original racks are 98% full and the new arrivals are being pushed against their will to the new system. Most of these are asy martins, we have had a sy male since the 15th, but now he has a partner to help cause problems. So far we only have 1 sy female.

I'm not sure about the timeline on chimney swifts, but I haven't seen the first one. I have seen small groups (2-5) of barn swallows and tree swallows, but not the large groups we normally see (50-150)

Thanks