Saturday I got up early and was out of the house by 6:30 AM. I drove about 30 miles to meet a friend. When I arrived I got out of my truck to retrieve something from the bed. Staring up at me was a fledgling. I put him in a small box until I could get back home several hours later. I returned him to a gourd I thought he came out of. He did not make it.
Sunday, by wife caught my Labrador barking at a fledgling on the ground. I put him back in the gourd. Monday he was found dead on the back porch.
There was one more left in the gourd, so since we had not seen any parent birds around feeding, I took him to a wildlife rehab.
I checked the gourd fo mites, but there were none. Why would these birds leave the nest if they were not ready? Would the parents abandon them?
Most of the resident birds appear gone as of yesterday.
3 fledged early, I think?
-
Laverne
- Posts: 2216
- Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2004 1:58 pm
- Location: TX/Alvin
- Martin Colony History: Erected 1st house in 1997. Birds were checking it out before Mike got down from the ladder. Six cavities had a little colony 1st year. Grown to 88 cavities all gourds with near 100% occupancy. Most important factor for success is rain = bugs.
Hello KEL.
That's so sad.... seems like every season we have a nest full that don't make it. I still maintain my position on abandonment. I don't believe it happens as often as others think. Did these three have SY parents? I think SYs are more likely to abandon than ASYs. SYs are more likely to be taken by hawk attack, too. These premature fledgings may have occured because the nestlings were starving due to the death of their mother. If this happened, then I can understand the male abandoning ship.
I stand firm on my opinions regarding abandonment because of the history with my colony. Somebody is always the last to leave every season - and I have never witnessed abandonment of the last nest. The parents will be the only birds around and busily feeding their young until the day they are all gone...
That's so sad.... seems like every season we have a nest full that don't make it. I still maintain my position on abandonment. I don't believe it happens as often as others think. Did these three have SY parents? I think SYs are more likely to abandon than ASYs. SYs are more likely to be taken by hawk attack, too. These premature fledgings may have occured because the nestlings were starving due to the death of their mother. If this happened, then I can understand the male abandoning ship.
I stand firm on my opinions regarding abandonment because of the history with my colony. Somebody is always the last to leave every season - and I have never witnessed abandonment of the last nest. The parents will be the only birds around and busily feeding their young until the day they are all gone...
Sincerely,
Laverne
Laverne
-
Guest
I don't know about the female but the male was an ASY. Also, I had not seen the female for a while. You could be right, the female may have died, and the male could have just abandoned them. These were the last nestlings to hatch. And by the looks of them they were not ready to fledge.