Does anyone know if Martins have magnetite in their beaks like homing pigeons do? I see where avian navigation can be a combination of sun angles and magnetic fields combined with visual cues like highways and rivers. I've heard that if one were to move a colony "even with hatchlings" to a suitable, "but new" location, even during the night with nest holes plugged, that upon first light after unplugging the holes, the birds would abandon their offspring and make a bee-line back to where they had come from. Might it not be possible to delay this re-homing urge by exposing the birds to an AC field like a de-gausing coil to temporarily dampen this "homing" instinct? Just expose the birds to a tape-demagnetizer and position their compartments at a similar sun angle as where they had come from. Might not this not induce enough mild "confusion" for them to re-align with their new home? If the food supply locally were abundant, and the adults exhibited strong enough parental instincts, then perhaps new colonies could be created where they had once formerly existed provided the conditions that eliminated them originally had been removed.
http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Ca ... o=0&fpart=
Transplanted Colonies & Martin Navigation?
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Fred Kaluza~MI
- Posts: 606
- Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 10:40 pm
- Location: Port Huron, Michigan
- Martin Colony History: Tried and tried and had some visitors but...not enough good insects around here to keep them interested.
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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.
FRED!!!
It's not nice to fool around with Mother Nature!
Seriously, something has already happened in nature that caused the decline of the PM in your area. When that cause is identified and remedied, the Purple Martin will re-establish colonies there - naturally.
Best wishes and good luck!
It's not nice to fool around with Mother Nature!
Seriously, something has already happened in nature that caused the decline of the PM in your area. When that cause is identified and remedied, the Purple Martin will re-establish colonies there - naturally.
Best wishes and good luck!
Sincerely,
Laverne
Laverne
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Fred Kaluza~MI
- Posts: 606
- Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 10:40 pm
- Location: Port Huron, Michigan
- Martin Colony History: Tried and tried and had some visitors but...not enough good insects around here to keep them interested.
Guess I'll go back to concentrating on building a better method of HOSP & Starling removal. Boy those Brits sure fixed us good! Do you suppose it was done in retaliation for bringing down their empire?