Unhealthy Migrants?

[Todd Wright]

Over the last couple of weeks during the miserable cold, rain, ice, and snow I had 7 martins consistent and sometimes 9. I fed countless numbers (I lost track) of crickets, meal worms, giant zophibia? worms, and scrambled eggs. At the end of the cold snap all of the original birds were still here and healthy. Starting on Friday and again yesterday new birds were flowing in- I'm not sure how many were here yesterday evening with the way they came in. This morning everything was fine and when I got home from Church I discovered a dead martin on a porch (no signs of trauma). I just went out to feed (back raining and in the 40's) and discovered another dead bird in a gourd (none of the original birds were gourd birds). Yesterday I observed one bird acting strange and landing on the privacy fence, house, and neighbors carport and not interacting with the rest of the birds so I am thinking one of the deceased is this bird. I am wondering if the dead birds are possibly migrants weakened from the bad weather and the trip to here was just to much for them?

[KathyF]

Todd,
You never know if they were weakened from the weather or have drank from bad water, etc.
It might be a good idea to collect their bodies, put them in ziploc bags and wait & see if this trend continues. If not, you could just get rid of them, but if it does, you could call your local DNR to have them tested.
I've had one die upon arrival - could just be old age and weakened by the weather.
I hope that is the end of the deaths though.

[Todd Wright]

Kathy,
I hope it is the end to. I was pretty excited that they survived all the cold and snow that we had and was caught off guard when I found the one on the porch today dead then the other in a gourd. I'm lucky that mine took to flipping last year during a March ice storm and they took to feeding from a tray this year. It was sad this evening to see the female still sitting on the porch waiting for her mate to come back. I have flipped and put on the porch and in the cavities approximately 500 crickets today and some worms so they should be fine I hope. Most of mine sat in the rain on my old tv antenna most of the day. Forecast for tomorrow is 2-4 inches of rain so hopefully tomorrow will be my last day of feeding- my fingers are swollen and sore from flipping crickets.

[KathyF]

Todd - remedy for sore fingers is sports tape, or wide medical tape - tape your flipping finger before going out to flip. My husband gets a big kick out this one...

Can you train them to take food from a tray?