Why Supplemental Feeding Could Lead to Ealier Arrivals.

[Doug Martin - PA]

Many of you may be shocked that I would write this. Afterall no one is a bigger supporter of a little extra help for our feathered friends during bad weather. In Western PA that is usually the entire month of April.

This year we had one of the earliest arrivals to the state to our site here in Fombell. Go back 4-5 years and I was in the 28th year of trying to attract these unique birds to a county with a Martin population of zero. The closest colony was over 10 miles away. Today there are hundreds of Purple Martins just on my little hill each year.

It is not the early arrival of this one bird that I am refering to when I say feeding could lead to early arrivals. Rather it is the general arrival of the entire colony that may be affected but only perhaps by a week or two.

Let me explain. You surely can agree or disagree I am merely looking at it with logic. It doesn't mean I am right either.

One of the first things I began to notice on the scout page this year was the dark purple bloch covering the Western PA area. I remembered years ago that the first scouts would always arrive in the south central part of the state. Then a week or two later colonies near me would see their first birds. In recent years however the first arrivals have been in the Western PA corridor area. Somewhat of a shift in the arrival timing. So with this recent population boom and the advent of supplemental feeding by most all landlords in this area.... there is indeed a noticable trend. Just look at the number of scout reports in PA in 2014 versus 2005. (106 vs 47) Many of these reports this year are from western pa.

Ok so why earlier due to supplemental feeding? Well it is a matter of conditioning in preparation for nesting and egg laying. Lets take a closer look at that. My birds are currently in good health right now. Sure there are a few droopy wings after a long cool windy rainy spell. But in general there have been no fatalities and health is very good. But...... if I were not feeding they would be in bad shape right now. There would have been some fatalities for certain this season too. It would be a battered, weak crew right now.

When the weather improves nesting will resume almost immediately,(started here prior to the cold spell) there will be no need to rehabiltate from the cold weather and rebuild strength. They will therefore nest earlier than a non-fed colony. They will likely lay more eggs as well, from being in better physical condition. The bottom line is everthing may occur a bit earlier as a result, including the fledging of the young, and the departure of the colony for the season.

This is what I believe could also ultimately affect their overall arrival time the following season. Not because they think they may get fed when returning.... but because their breeding season may have gotten bunped up a week or two as it would in a warmer spring with plenty of insects to feed on.

I'm sure some may beat me up on this thinking but it makes sense to me and I thought I would share this with the folks on this forum that have asked tis question before. HMMM

Any other thoughts on this theory? I know one thing for certain, I sure got a lot of birds back already. They are also eating a lot! LOL

Doug

[Louise Chambers]

It's always interesting to speculate on the why's and what's of martins returns. The spring Update has an article based on geolocator return data that suggests the opposite, looking at range wide returns tracked with geolocators. But, there is no tie to feeding, the article is about weather and return times.

[Doug Martin - PA]

Speculation indeed Louise. Seems they will do what they do regardless.

But it was a thought that occurred in my Martin "bird brain".

Doug

[KathyF]

Doug, I doubt very seriously that the martins leave Brazil earlier than usual, thinking, "there will be Doug's or Kathy's famous scrambled eggs and crickets, so we can leave early - Yippeee"!
Martins have arrived "early" before, way before the advent of supplemental feeding. So what was their driver then -why did they leave early? There is documented evidence that they leave based on the diurnal cycles - the length of the days growing longer and the high competition for nest sites.
Your evidence is purely anecdotal ...as is mine. Arrival dates: 2012-13 March, 2013-9 March, 2014-10 March.

Bottom line: Don't feed - you are 100% sure to need a 5-gallon bucket to pick up the dead martins in your yard.
Feed - your colony (not all, of course, but the majority) will survive.

I know PA is a different story than MO, but I think your title of your post is a bit strong and does not match the content or the proof that the title suggests.

[birdbrat]

Doug, This is a good topic and I'm sure there will be a lot of opinions. It did get me to thinking about the first years, when I was trying to increase my martin colony. Probably 25 years or so ago. At that time I am pretty sure no one was supplemental feeding in this area. However, while I was waiting for birds to return in mid April to my site, a friend of mine that had had a colony for several years told me that his birds had been back since early March. ( he lived 15 miles away and would have laughed if anyone suggested feeding them or doing nest checks) I remember thinking that my birds were not going to come back. Looking back, I wonder if it is the older colonies that return early. My site was only a couple years old. His much older. That's just a little more speculation from this Ohio landlord. I look forward to reading other thoughts.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I have no fixed opinion, but there just is not enough data there to make an opinion. Statistical proof requires a much larger sample, probably 50 or 100 times the data that you are using. Then the time span is too short also, it would require many years of verification.

[John Miller]

I'm wondering whether the earlier scout reports can be attributed not to feeding, but to the good job some of you are doing in educating folks about caring for martins -- so they have larger colonies and those tend to get earlier arrivals.
John M

[taxidermy lady]

Hay I'm not even a landlord yet and just reading and looking at people's profile ! You darn right it's competition at large colony's. If I was homeless and was offered a house you darn right I'd be the first back! Good luck to all!

[chickadee]

few months ago I posted a topic wondering if feeding them bring them back sooner? if they depend on us more? because one thing I notice is a lot of early birds people have back are ones that are trained and know how to eat and take crickets from us.

[taxidermy lady]

Yeah I remember that Chickadee. No one will never figure Mother Nature out totally! it's all about survival!

[KathyF]

Last year, I heard through one of my landlords I work with here in MO that there was a landlord - I believe he's in Farmington, MO who had a 300 pair colony.
From mid-March through the first week of May, it was snowing, icing and rarely above 40 degrees here. I had to feed for almost 6-7 weeks straight, so I knew that other landlords that didn't feed were going to lose some. There were more than a few reports that came in about landlords losing 8, 10, 15, etc. I lost 12 myself.

This landlord in Farmington lost over 200 martins. He had never fed before [as the story was told to me] - didn't even know you could, yet they were all at his site within a few days of mine. That's a significant loss. Anecdotal story, I know....but until I hear some scientific data on it, I'll keep flipping.

[chickadee]

Doug is not saying not to feed. It is just what he thinks. And I agree. All birds are smarter then we think. For example. I have robins that are trained to take grapes from me. When I walk out the door they come close and if I don't feed them they scald me. Over the past few years they have showed up earlier with snow on the ground. Before I was feeding them they was not here so early. And it's the same robins. I try to feed a untrained one and they just look at me. So do I think martins say hay lets get their early to get bed and breakfast. Know I don't. But I think in past years they left to get back to a site early to get a good seat. And the ones that have learned to feed over the years that are back even sooner I think the feeding just bumped them back a little sooner. And yes I think we still should feed them. Another example I have a pair of barn swallows that have been alive for 5 years. Nesting in my 2 car attached garage. Long story. But they come back and know right where they are going and can't get any other swallows to go in the garage. But they want inside they remember they may get locked inside but it is safe. So yea I think well we know they remember they get food. So why wouldn't they say hay let's split out of Brazil sooner?

[DebA]

Don't ruin it for me, Kathy. I do think my martins driving force to migrate is their desire to be with me. Of course. They're like...boy I miss Deb...and while I'm here I'll have a few kids.



Deb

[Doug Martin - PA]

Correct Chickadee.

If you read my post there is nothing negative regarding feeding them. Mine get fed almost every day during April. I strongly support feeding them.

My point is that it can perhaps speed up the nesting cycle due to them not having to recover from prolonged cold spells that leave them in poor condition. This in turn may turn the entire clock forward for returning the following season.

My well fed birds may start nesting and laying eggs before the colony that the birds have experienced losses and near starvation.It may take a week or two to recover from that.

Starving birds do not lay eggs or nest. They spend their time surviving instead. This in turn pushes back the nesting cycle. Or visa versa.

Doug

[Lewis]

Here is my take. I agree with John Miller in that it is because more people in the area are establishing bigger and better colonies. In the past you had the " Scout Myth" , a lone ASY male would return and then disappear maybe due to cold weather. Later more ASY males return and survive in warmer conditions thus the thinking was that the first scout went back and brought the others with him when in fact he probably didn't make it.
When the colony grows you have more and more early ASY males driven to be first to the breeding/nesting site.

Lewis

[KathyF]

Doug, the title of your post enforces a myth that is not proven and is negative in that it may cause people to decide not to feed because the fear of making them return even earlier.

And, starving birds don't lay eggs or nest earlier, because they're dead.

[KathyF]

And chickadee, regarding this:

hay let's split out of Brazil sooner

Then why don't I see my birds in January or February? Heck, why even leave here then?

[chickadee]

because of weather. I think they come soon as they can to breed. and I think people should and will feed before finding their birds dead. it does not change birds from hunting finding their own food. but I think we should not rule out that it could play a part of earlier arrivals.

[Chuck4]

Purple Martins are interesting birds. We have obviously impacted them in a way that has changed their nesting behavior. It is proven that they can survive some pretty cold temps. So it does seem that supplemental feeding could eventually lead to another tradition shift in these birds. However, having to feed an aerial insectivore requires tons of effort on our part. I think, in general, Purple Martins will go where the bugs are, and the extremely early arrivals are outliers from the rest of the population. How will they do without supplemental feeding? In a sense, I think we are inducing human selection as opposed to natural selection in this species of bird. Sort of like domestication of dogs and cats etc. Martins are Semi domesticated birds. It seems completely plausible to me that if enough people offered supplemental feeding, that it could affect the overall arrival times of this bird. I will offer it if I have too. What we do does impact the fitness of the population be it in a positive or negative way.

Other factors could be causing earlier arrivals though, like weather patterns, climate change, etc., in addition to the desire to get the best nesting cavity.

[Show-Me-Mike]

Kathy,

Just to clarify for readers lest they come to an erroneous conclusion. You alluded to a Farmington, MO landlord who manages a super colony of 300+ martins and mentioned his loss of 200 birds and implied that it was a failure to feed. The sobbing (forlorn not sobbing) landlord you referred to is a long-time friend of mine who indeed lives just outside of Farmington, MO. His loss however was not due to a failure to feed.

His loss was due to a peculiar (not unheard of) martin survival trait of cramming themselves together into a single compartment in an effort to warm themselves and becoming trapped there in the process. I have observed this on occasion and I am always alert to this potentially fatal event during long periods of cold weather we sometimes get in the North. Perhaps you have observed this at your colony. Perhaps not.

On the morning of my buddy's loss, I was doing a routine nest check and observed a martin's tail feather protruding out from one of the compartments and knew immediately what that meant. I discovered 20+ martins had shoe-horned themselves into one of the compartments and had become trapped there. I freed them one-by-one from the compartment and away they flew unharmed. I called my buddy and informed him what happened and recommended he do an immediate nest check and that's when he discovered his tragic loss. A goodly number of his martins had unwittingly trapped themselves into several of his compartments. Unfortunately, small colonies are just as susceptible as the larger ones, they just don't lose as many birds.

Lessens learned from this experience.

1. Make a habit of doing regular nest checks even if nothing more than walking around beneath your martin houses and looking up. You'll be amazed at what you discover.

2. Even well-fed martins will congregate together in a single compartment in an effort to stay warm. (just like humans) It's one of the many things they do to survive.

3. Supplemental feeding is not the cure all to end all. Humans can do only so much for purple martins. Past a certain point, they are on their own as it is with all other of God's creations.

"Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" Matthew 6:26 KJV

Best wishes to all for a successful martin season.

Michael