SY nest looks strange (to me)

[Bcorbs1217]

As I've said before, I have not been good about controlling HOSP's and doing nest checks in the past. I am fortunate that martins have such strong site fidelity and realized I owe them much more than I gave them when I was working full time. This year has been a joy getting to know the martins here and take a more active roll in all areas of colony management.

That being said, one of my SY's has the strangest nest. She is paired with an ASY male. She was the last to build a nest and even disappeared for a few days two weeks ago. Now she has built a nest but she has covered the nest bowl with crunchy, brown leaves. She used these old leaves throughout the building process. Is this common? The nests that martins here have (and have had in the past) are beautifully constructed with the green leaves on top but this nest is kind of a mess.

[ToyinPA]

Yes it's normal for a SY female to do that. Keep in mind the SY's are not full adults yet & still in the learning progress.

I also have a nest built entirely of dry oak leaves & later she did put some straw around the top edge to hold it all together. Another nest was built entirely of green oak leaves & no straw. Both nests have ASY Males & SY Females.

Several years ago I had a ASY male pair with a ASY Female. She needed to get her nest built quickly, as she was ready to lay eggs a few days after she arrived. That nest had maybe 7 twigs as the whole nest & nothing else. It gets better. She laid 4 eggs & all hatched. A few days later the ASY male went off to feed & never made it back. I assumed a hawk got him. A SY Male had been hanging around their nest before the eggs hatched. He tagged along with the ASY Male the whole time, sort like he was in training, which is unusual for the males to let a SY that close to their mate. The female accepted the SY Male as her new mate, 2 days later, & he took over Dad duty feeding the chicks. He was a good Dad to those chicks & they all feldged. This is a rare case, as most SY Males would have disposed of those chicks.

So yep those SY's can do some strange unusual things, but the following year they come back all grown up & ready to take on the world .

Toy in PA

[Bcorbs1217]

That's a great story, Toy! What a nice defense the, sometimes, troublesome single SY male. I'm glad to know that not all females follow the nest building playbook.

[Mhoover]

Even adult females will sometimes use just dried leaved to provide a floor in their nests. I had two do that last year.

[Kyler]

This is a SY Pairs nest in a Modified Bo Gourd. See all the Dry Oak Leaves. I prenest all my Compartments with Pine Needles and Dry Oak Leaves. But in the Gourds I only used Pine Needles this year. So they built this nest out of Oak Leaves and Straw with the Pine Needles underneath.



Kyler,

[Bcorbs1217]

Very similar to my SY's nest though no green leaves yet. I have a leftover pile of mulch from a Redbud we cut down. Martins have been using the mulch to build as well. Great picture, Kyler!

[marcus]

Last year, I had an ASY pair and the male brought green leaves in to add to the pine needles that I had used for a pre-nest. The female ( the dark one that I call Oreo) brought nothing in. They raised their clutch with no problems.

[j6745l@gmail.com]

[quote="Kyler"]This is a SY Pairs nest in a Modified Bo Gourd. See all the Dry Oak Leaves. I prenest all my Compartments with Pine Needles and Dry Oak Leaves. But in the Gourds I only used Pine Needles this year. So they built this nest out of Oak Leaves and Straw with the Pine Needles underneath.



Kyler

Thanks for the Pictures for us newbies...We need some hope for the future..

[~Ray~Gingerich]

The worst nest I ever ran across was one that was stuffed full of dried Lima bean shells. The shells were dry and twisted, some had twisted into spiral shapes.It was a nightmare finding and counting the eggs, I finally removed a big handfull.

[Bcorbs1217]

Ray, that is hilarious! Guess they use whatever is readily available.

[Whippy]

My SY female put several white zip ties in her nest. Just added this photo from another thread. You can see the zip ties.

[Bcorbs1217]

Go figure, Whippy

[Whippy]

Bcorbs,

I added a picture above so you can see them.

Coolwhips

[ToyinPA]

They often find things that spark their interest to stick in their nests. I have found metal can tabs, zip ties, pieces of plastic combs, glass, cellophane, plastic straws, colored feathers from carnival toys, etc., you name it. I usually let those things in their nests, as it's something they chose. Once a nest change is required they get tossed.

Toy in PA

[Bcorbs1217]

Wow. I guess my SY's nest isn't so strange, then. At least she's going organic!