Miserable day for martins in south Texas

[Louise Chambers]

We've been feeding crickets and mealworms to our crew from the B&B feeder. One pair have nestlings less than a week old, and she is making repeat trips for worms.

The front that came in last night halted a lot of migrants of various species, and today it's cold, windy, spitting moisture - not a feeding day, temp in 50s and falling. And here come the migrant martins - our sparrow hotel trap house is covered with martins, so we opened the martin doors and added pine straw, but they continue to huddle on porches and perch on power lines.

Worse, I just watched one martin fly to ground beyond our fence, peeked over and saw 60+ cold martins sitting on the ground. Can't feed them (try to toss food), they'll flush. But keeping an eye on them and will try to toss food if we can. Feeders are full but they are not partaking.

[KathyF]

Ouch - this is not your typical weather for TX.

When it was at its worst here, Bob brought up the idea that they use in FL orchards. Get those large round bales of hay and set them on fire. They take a long time to burn and give off a lot of heat (smoke too, I imagine). I was real close to trying it.

Yikes - hang in there. They're in the very best of hands with you and JB.

[AvianStewardess]

This weather really stinks! I don't have any suggestions; just wanted to commiserate with you, Louise. Hang in there; "normal" weather must be right around the corner!

[Louise Chambers]

forgot the photos! It does not get this bad in Texas too often, at least not this far south, and we really have nothing to complain about. I feel bad for the martins but tomorrow will be a much better day for feeding. So many landlords have really worked their butts off to keep their birds alive this spring, from OK, KS, MO on east and north - you've all done your best.

[Terry]

Louise,
I know the feeling all to well. It's been a miserable spring for the Martins.
Iv'e fead more than 30 thousand mealworm's and they want more!
They won't eat the egg's when they can have the worms.

I just wonder how many we've lost?

Maybe just me, but we are usually over half full now. I don't think we have a third as of now.

Next two weeks here will be interesting to see how they make out.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Louise,

It seems like February up here in northwest Louisiana! I have never seen such cold weather this late in April since I moved here.

We have had several cold spells this April with temperatures in the low 30s and highs only in the upper 40s. Last week we had ice on our trucks and this morning the wind chill was around 35 at one time.

I don't have any nestlings but some females are incubating full clutches and other females have started laying. I don't know if these cold spells will adversely impact the eggs, particularly those with partial clutches and the female has not started incubation. I remember several years ago we had a freeze in this area and other nearby locations and some martin eggs didn't hatch. A number of my martins re-nested.

Fortunately, the temperature has climb to the low 60s with abundant sunshine this afternoon. The martins are doing fine and are feeding. It will be chilly tonight and in the morning. Then a warming trend.

This morning our martins were sitting on the ground in large groups to keep warm and stay out of the cold wind.

Steve

[Nealbopper]

Hello all, New member here. I am Neal. This spring is the worst I can remember. My uncle built me a new 8 compartment birdhouse and I added 12 assorted gourds. I haven't seen a bird yet. Thought I did but it turned out to be a tree Swallow. I hear there are birds further north but I'm not dure if they made it because I haven't seen a new bird post or any for that matter here from Michigan.

[ToyinPA]

What amazes me is I've had martins since 1998. Not once have mine ever huddled together, like in your photos Louise, to stay warm, even when the temps drop below freezing. We've had situations where we had freezing rain & snow after they arrived.

We just had 2 nights where temps dropped into the 20's. I have 1 ASY female who is paired with an ASY male. They stay together in the same room. The rest are males & they all chose a separate room. I have 2 T-10 houses.

Tonight we had pouring rain storm move across. Temps rose just before the storm to 74. All of them (7) were flying in the pouring rain the whole time. They circled & circled. Temps dropped to 60 during the rain.

Makes me wonder if there is a difference between Southern Martins & Northern Martins? Seems like those that come North can tolerate the lower temps.

Toy in PA

[Craig Haddox]

Louise, look's like quite a few ASY'S in that group of migrants. Send them north I still have room. Are there still plenty of adults passing through the area?

[Louise Chambers]

I was interested to see those adult birds, it would be nice to try to say, here's when adult migration is complete on TX coast - yes, we are sending them all north, pretty much. We will probably keep a few subbies.

[CraigMo.]

Sorry about your weather Louise
Craig

[Matt@atx]

Im sorry to hear this Louise. It was about 62-63 here in Austin today so no feeding here as well.
Tomorrows forecast is 70 during the day so hopefully this will bring the flying insects out. I makes me concerned as well. I too know we cannot complain with what has been going on with our neighbors in the north and east. Thats severe cold weather suffering for them and their precious birds.

If those young pups in your photos are still heading north, I may wire hang my last 4 new TVG's up on a temporary cross bar to my rack system to snag a few of them while the gettin is good.

[Trishy]

I am sorry to hear about your bad weather also. I sure hope your babies make it. You can send some of those adults my way. My martins are 2 weeks late as of today, and I am getting kind of anxious. I really don't blame them though. I hope to see some this weekend. We skipped Spring, and are going right into summer. Thanks for the pictures Louise, and thanks for taking such great care of all the martins that come your way.

[GeneP]

Nice to know that Southerners are taking care of the migrating Martins.

Thank you so much.

[M.Stephens]

It was about 62-63 here in Austin today so no feeding here as well.
Tomorrows forecast is 70 during the day so hopefully this will bring the flying insects out.

Matt,
Martins can find flying insects with those temps. It's when it's under 50 degrees that martins have a hard time feeding.

Louise,
I hate seeing cold hungry martins. This has been an unusual Spring for sure.

[Louise Chambers]

Normally feeding in the 50s would not be a problem, but when you factor in windy and cloudy conditions, plus intermittent spits of rain, it added up to little or no feeding. This evening, when the wind let up, some birds did feed. All the grounded martins took off and flew, too. That was a relief! Tomorrow calls for 69 degrees and perhaps (don't believe it) some showers. They should be okay tomorrow and the days that follow.

Another neighborhood landlord called to tell us martins were sitting on the roofs of houses all around his site, for warmth. Chimney swifts were flying so low to feed that I could have kissed a few - but they ran the other way

[ToyinPA]

Normally feeding in the 50s would not be a problem, but when you factor in windy and cloudy conditions, plus intermittent spits of rain, it added up to little or no feeding. This evening, when the wind let up, some birds did feed. All the grounded martins took off and flew, too. That was a relief! Tomorrow calls for 69 degrees and perhaps (don't believe it) some showers. They should be okay tomorrow and the days that follow.

Another neighborhood landlord called to tell us martins were sitting on the roofs of houses all around his site, for warmth. Chimney swifts were flying so low to feed that I could have kissed a few - but they ran the other way

Louise see this is what I mean....my martins never do this here in central PA. They sit on the martin house & wait for the weather to clear & temps to hit about 50 & off they go rain or shine. They sit out in pouring rain or fly in high winds. It's like they're dare devils. Makes me think that Northern martins are wired just a bit different than southern martins.

Toy in PA

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Louise, sorry to hear that your martins are suffering. Ours actually had a few great feeding days before yesterday, they seem to be in very good shape, they are sitting in that wind, too cold to eat yesterday, but they do not seem stressed at all, and today it should be 73 and calm so they will fatten up today.

This weather has been so cold. I love to garden, but the tomatoes quit growing recently, we should be eating tomatoes now like we did last year, but it must be 2 or 3 weeks later that they will ripen.. I don't think that this ever happened before with such a delay.

On the good side, my son lives about 30 miles away (by auto), and he told me that he is finding egg shells on the ground, so he has some that have hatched. I have not seen ours feeding babies yet, or found no empty shells.

[Louise Chambers]

Our first nest hatched over a week ago - it was neat to watch female from that nest making repeated trips to feeder yesterday, keeping her nestlings filled with the giant mealworms she likes.

[Robbo]

I know of one person who uses heatlamps on their roof and the Martin's hang out there and eat crickets ?