Photos Of Frozen Purple Martin Housing!

[Steve Kroenke]

Photos Of Frozen Purple Martin Housing!

This year has been the worst cold I have ever experienced since moving to Louisiana! Our area has been assaulted over and over again by cold rain, overcast skies, and some ice and snow. I promise to never complain about any hot weather again!

This morning February 12, 2014, there is ice all over the place with a temperature of around 30 degrees. It may get to 40 later on if that rare element, sunshine ever returns to northwest Louisiana!

I counted five purple martins this morning around my colony and amazingly they flew well and one of the males was animated and vocal. There could be several other martins hunkered down inside their cavities. The most martins I have counted so far have been nine.

Unfortunately, at least four martins have died: two males and two females. All these martins were in very poor condition and two actually died within minutes after we found them. Their bodies were emaciated.

Today will still be cold and the temperature may get up to 40 if the sunshine will ever come out. However, tomorrow will be much better and a nice warming trend will start with southern winds. This weather change will most likely bring in more martins to our colonies. Based on the flying behavior of the martins I’ve observed this morning, I believe they will make it OK.

We have never offered supplemental feeding to martins in our colonies as there really has never been a need for it. Though the weather can be cold and unfavorable, particularly in February and March, the inclement conditions rarely last for more than a few days. This 2014 weather disaster has lasted much longer and has been worse relative to temperatures.

I took a few photos this morning of some of my martin housing with ice sickles hanging down! Two of the photos have male martins in them.


Here is a photo of my older Gemini with a male martin sitting on the porch of a Troyer Horizontal Gourd. He seems to be doing fine and tries to dominate the entire gourd rack and even a nearby Trendsetter.



Here is a photo of one of my Trendsetters with a male martin sitting on a fiberglass perching rod.



Here is a photo of one of my K24 gourd racks with those frozen ice sickles hanging down.



Steve

[JL Murray]

Steve I love how your newly changed site looks and enjoy seeing all the picture's you share of it with us, But that ice is not a happy sight to see, I sure hope that the ice melts and disappears quickly for you.

I imagine that ice really adds some weight to everything too!

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey JL,

I am glad you enjoy the photos and my changed martin colony! By reducing the number of housing systems, my colony looks less cluttered and I believe will be more manageable.

The ice is finally melting and the ice sickles are falling off the martin housing. But it is still cold with temperatures in the mid 30s. No sunshine today so far.

I counted six martins around housing today and most seemed to fly OK. But they are definitely stressed. The temperature should reach the mid-50s tomorrow with more sunshine.

There is a definite warming trend heading our way and more martins should be arriving at our colonies. Most of the ASY martins return in March and most of the SYs come in April.

Steve

[Kathy in VA]

Those are unbelievable photos! Especially for so far south. Thanks for sharing them.
I highly recommend supplemental feeding! I keep crickets in the freezer and mealworms in the refrigerator...and it is absolutely exhilarating to flip a cricket up in the air and have your martin fly toward you and catch it and give you his little excited, "Hey, I got it!" chirp, and fly back to the rack to wait for another one. It's probably exhilarating for him, too!, to get some food when he's hungry and exhausted from a long migration and there isn't anything else flying thru the air for him to eat. I've done it on several occasions, and it really is a blast!...it's a real bonding experience between us humans and the wild creatures we love and wish to sustain.
I hope you have a terrific season!
And thanks for all the martin advice you've given me in the past--thru email, telephone, and your knowledgeable posts to all of us through this Forum!

[dhjohnson]

Steve,
Thanks for the posts and well written articles covering your observations in past posts! One thing you have always stressed is good housing and general management for your site! As you only have 5 or 6 birds in residence. Supplemental feeding seems to be the appropriate choice for those who have travelled far to be at your site. Even if you haven't had to offer this in the past. I think you will agree that our weather has decided to mix things up on us all right now in the south! Please continue to be the inspiration to those of us still getting our feet wet in the joys of being a martin landlord! Your legacy is very well known! Offer them food if you can!
Best of luck for the 2014 martin season!
Debbie

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Kathy/Debbie,

Fortunately, we rarely have any extended periods of nasty weather which threaten our purple martins. We also live way out in the country with open pastures, small ponds, and herds of cattle. Even during some bad weather, martins can often still find flying insects in such an environment, particularly if there is some sunshine. I have seen martins catching insects with temperatures in the low 40s and have observed martins flying near cattle which no doubt have many flies and other insects around! Martins will also fly almost at ground level over open cow pastures or bodies of water in search of small flying insects. The sun may warm the earth or water just enough to allow flying insects to stir at low altitudes.

However, this recent weather disaster lasted longer than usual and most days were cloudy; so flying insects were probably rarely available to the few martins that are here.

I will be better prepared in the future for such nasty weather and will have crickets or mealworms available. I am familiar with supplemental feeding strategies/techniques.

I am glad you have enjoyed my articles/postings and I hope to continue posting photos and articles on the Forum. I hope both of you have a great martin season without all the nasty cold weather that we had!

Steve

[Dave Duit]

Hi Steve,
i pray hard for all the martin landlords in the south dealing with this weather. I know you are a very seasoned landlord and your martins are lucky to have you as their protector.

[Kathy in VA]

We have at least 6" of snow on the ground right now, up here in Virginia! It has been pouring snow, with high winds, all evening. Now it's sleeting. I sure am glad martins haven't gotten up this far north, yet. As exciting as feeding martins is, it would be very little fun in blizzard-like conditions! So we are having a mess to deal with, and more snow and ice on the way.

My first martin arrived last year on March 18. It was 40 degrees and raining. The lone ASY male was visibly stressed--droopy wings and all. I went out in the rain and tried flipping crickets. I wasted loads of crickets trying to get him to fly out for one. Finally he did! Then another one. Then he really got it down pat. I fed him several times a day, for 11 days. We were having really cold weather and then snow and sleet. No flying insects out then. He got really good at catching crickets and would fly to the rack and wait for me when I came outside. He didn't care for the carefully crafted egg/cricket souffle I cooked for him (he spit it out--was that rude of him, or what?!), but he ate the crickets very well (and mealworms when I ran out of crickets.) I fear he would have died if I had not fed him. Then the weather warmed and all was well!
Did the feeding thing one other time during the season when we had several days of cloudy, rainy and windy weather, until the sun came out again.

Thanks again for all your informative posts!

[Michael Sanford ~ OK]

These pictures also stress the need for pre-nests. Martins roosting on bare plastic in weather like that would certainly be deadly. I always pre-nest my gourds and I'm glad you do too, Steve. It has to be a heroic effort to pre-nest 350+ gourds. My 60 seem like a lot! My hat's off to you.