Southeast Coast Atmospheric River
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Condorman
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2016 10:17 pm
- Location: Southern Pines, North Carolina
- Martin Colony History: Started new colony at daughter's small farm in 2024. Acquired aluminum houses from landlords that have had failures or never were able to attract martins (wrong locations). Retrofitted entrance doors with 3/4" wooden blocks with entrance holes to increase insulation and add stability to the box. First ASYM arrived in late April, by June 1, 4 pairs= 3 ASYM's and 1 SYM. Biggest concern is predation by rat snakes. By June 1 still haven't developed a safe rat snake guard and count each day without predation as pure luck. First ASYM feeding first young on 5/26/24.
Wondered how folks were making out with our second day of pretty much straight rain as a result of the most unusual atmospheric river coming off the Gulf of Mexico? In east central North Carolina we've had our second day of rain with two more days expected. Yesterday birds didn't feed at all that I saw, and today it's been raining hard since about 8:00 a.m. and it's now almost 1:00 p.m. Some folks report young in the nest already, others have incubating females. Reminds me of Hurricane Agnes in 1972 in eastern Pennsylvania..when we lost many colonies.
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scottfreidhof
- Posts: 349
- Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:13 am
- Location: Kentucky/Morehead
Interesting weather event but too stressful for our favorite aerial insectivores. I hope your birds are out feeding this evening. Looks like the worst of the system has moved north of your state.
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Jones4381
- Posts: 830
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 10:54 pm
- Location: Southwestern VA
- Martin Colony History: 2020- 0
2021- 1 pair-5
2022- 5 pair-20
2023 34 pair-44
2024 30 pair-122
2025 54 Pair -178
About 2 hours due north of you in VA. There have been some pockets where they've been able to feed a little during daylight hours here, hoping you've had some too. Wednesday looks mostly dry in my area during the daytime again so all should be fine here. Lost many birds in 23' after 5 day rain event with zero pockets during the daytime hours and it would stop during night time. I'm betting you'll be fine but if you haven't seen any stoppage's the last two days hopefully tomorrow you will and the birds should be fine. Let us know.
"Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." - Lao Tzu
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Condorman
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2016 10:17 pm
- Location: Southern Pines, North Carolina
- Martin Colony History: Started new colony at daughter's small farm in 2024. Acquired aluminum houses from landlords that have had failures or never were able to attract martins (wrong locations). Retrofitted entrance doors with 3/4" wooden blocks with entrance holes to increase insulation and add stability to the box. First ASYM arrived in late April, by June 1, 4 pairs= 3 ASYM's and 1 SYM. Biggest concern is predation by rat snakes. By June 1 still haven't developed a safe rat snake guard and count each day without predation as pure luck. First ASYM feeding first young on 5/26/24.
We dodged the bullet here...Rain Sunday and all day Monday, but Tuesday dawned high solid cloud cover, and began to break up with intermittent sunshine by 8:30 a.m. Fortunately it was already 70* so probably some insects were flying. By mid-day bright sunshine and upper 70's and every body back to normal. I've had some real disasters and it's not pretty, so I get real nervous when we have forecasts talking about 3 days of rain. Lots of SY birds moving in and colonies are active.