Steve--need advice
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Steve Kroenke
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Logansport
Hey,
Your situation is a difficult one because so many of your babies are due to fledge. The gourd with 7 babies is probably at its limit relative to the ability of the parents to feed all of them. It is risky to lower a gourd rack/house when young are over 20 days old. I have done it on rare occasions and the young remained in their nests as I lowered the housing very slowly and would stop at the greatest height I could reach the gourd with a step ladder. This method may reduce the chances of the young prematurely fledging. However, that is no guarantee the young will not prematurely fledge.
With your remaining baby, the key is whether its parents have learned to recognize the youngster prior to its flight. Did the parents see it fly? Have the parents established a vocalization recognition bond with the baby? If they have, then when the youngster calls for food, the parents will recognize the baby and hopefully fly down to the gourd on the shepard?s hook. At that point, they may feed the youngster or even try to coax him/her out. Also, this youngster may still try to fly from the gourd.
I would first see how things work out with the gourd on the shepard?s hook. See if the parents are flying down to it and most importantly, are they bringing food. Try it for several hours.
Way in the past, I used another method to return young to their nests. It worked sometimes and sometimes it didn?t! I would first calm down the youngster the best I could. Then I would ?try? to place the youngster on the end of a long pole (cane fishing pole worked well) and hope he/she didn?t try to fly. Let the youngster grip the end of the pole. I would carefully and slowly lift up the pole and try to position the youngster near the entrance hole to a gourd/house compartment with similar size young. Then I would try to move the youngster close to the hole and see if he/she would cling to it and enter. I had some success doing this, but some young did try to fly again and there were no guarantees they would enter the entrance hole.
Please monitor the status of the youngster in the gourd on the shepard?s hook and let us know how things turn out. Good luck.
Steve
Your situation is a difficult one because so many of your babies are due to fledge. The gourd with 7 babies is probably at its limit relative to the ability of the parents to feed all of them. It is risky to lower a gourd rack/house when young are over 20 days old. I have done it on rare occasions and the young remained in their nests as I lowered the housing very slowly and would stop at the greatest height I could reach the gourd with a step ladder. This method may reduce the chances of the young prematurely fledging. However, that is no guarantee the young will not prematurely fledge.
With your remaining baby, the key is whether its parents have learned to recognize the youngster prior to its flight. Did the parents see it fly? Have the parents established a vocalization recognition bond with the baby? If they have, then when the youngster calls for food, the parents will recognize the baby and hopefully fly down to the gourd on the shepard?s hook. At that point, they may feed the youngster or even try to coax him/her out. Also, this youngster may still try to fly from the gourd.
I would first see how things work out with the gourd on the shepard?s hook. See if the parents are flying down to it and most importantly, are they bringing food. Try it for several hours.
Way in the past, I used another method to return young to their nests. It worked sometimes and sometimes it didn?t! I would first calm down the youngster the best I could. Then I would ?try? to place the youngster on the end of a long pole (cane fishing pole worked well) and hope he/she didn?t try to fly. Let the youngster grip the end of the pole. I would carefully and slowly lift up the pole and try to position the youngster near the entrance hole to a gourd/house compartment with similar size young. Then I would try to move the youngster close to the hole and see if he/she would cling to it and enter. I had some success doing this, but some young did try to fly again and there were no guarantees they would enter the entrance hole.
Please monitor the status of the youngster in the gourd on the shepard?s hook and let us know how things turn out. Good luck.
Steve