Purple Martin Forum

Unusual but good year here as well. Started out late due to the very cold late spring. One pair laid eggs throughout the cold and was weeks ahead of the rest. Also had one nest just hatch a week ago. So I will have a very late one as well. Should fledge about 165 total this year. I had more subadult...

The past several days big groups of SY Martins have come in here. They are filling in any void left by the deaths of the extended cold spring weather. Young females are pairing quickly with ASY males and pairs of them taking any open vacancies. There are some years that only a pair or two can find a...

Freeze dried. But would recommend a supplement for any extended period of feeding.

After a low temperature of 60 last night and a high yesterday of 70 my site is jumping. Seems many returned here as well.

Plus some new ones and first sub adult males. The tree swallows were also gone and are now chittering around too. What a difference a few days can make!

Well so much for that. :x The weather warmed and the bluebirds must have been busy hunting for real food. House sparrows threw out the nestlings and put some of their trash in the bluebird box while I was away for the day. Some bluebird feathers from a fight in the box. I could hear the cheep cheep ...

Dave,

I will give them a try for the birds too. Thanks. Maybe a good compliment to the mealworms.

I do mix in freeze dried gut loaded crickets as well. A handful to each bowl of mealworm.

Doug

Flyin-Lowe, Let us know what happens there at your site. Today is a different day at my site. Sunny no wind and 55 headed to 60. I definitely have less birds as well but the early veteran pairs are all intact. Sounds like your weather was nothing like ours here. Sure you don't have a Hawk issue? Gre...

Could not believe 4 un-feathered babies made it through this crazy weather. Coldest night was 24 degrees with several others in the 20s. Many days the high temperature never got out of the 30s and 40s. Opened the box and there they were looking up. I saw the parents taking mealworms from the Martin'...

Rural King and Tractor Supply carry 5lb bags of mealworms. I get 11lb bags from Amazon and Ebay. This is likely all a mute point this year, as temperatures will climb into the 80s by next week. This cold spring weather is finally about history at this point. You just need to be ready each spring and...

Flyin Lowe, I suspect a good number of the deaths occurring at local sites here and the ones that were communal roosting at my site were migrating birds. They were not familiar with platform feeding here. This is not good for those landlords further north. Weather like this not only delays migration...

Keeping fat content low and protein levels high are important. Problem is that the freeze dried process does remove a good bit of the nutrients. The supplement replaces that. It is sunny and upper 30s this morning here and my birds are back to nest building after snow 3 of the last 4 days. I can tel...

I posted reports several years ago of a Martin that came in here in March that endured extremely cold temperatures and survived. I would need to look back on it but I know nighttime temperatures were in the single digits and highs were in the teens. I don’t think it went above freezing for almost 10...

Bumping this up for those interested during this poor weather. I continue to use this product with water soaked freeze dried meal worms as the primary supplemental food source for my colony. This year I have fed almost 20 pounds of meal worms to almost a hundred birds due to the poor weather occurri...

Sue, I have posted this information prior. I use Nekton tonic I for my birds when feeding. I mix it into the freeze dried mealworms when I feed them. It is used to help insect eating birds recover from stress and starvation. I believe many of the birds that communal roosted here were migrating throu...

Even the colonies around me that feed are finding a lot of dead birds. It important when the weather improves to get them out of their communal roosts. I was fortunate to only lose a few as I am hearing reports of many many dead ones when the housing is lowered. The ones in my roosts were barely abl...

I did a nest check yesterday and also found about 10 Martins in one gourd. Another cavity in T14 had 7 in it. Most of the colony (80ish) is fine however. This afternoon when it warms above 55 I will empty the communal roosts. Lost a female that was on my porch and found a dead male in a gourd as wel...

After off and on snow flurries yesterday and an overnight low of 24 degrees the ground is white and so is the air. It’s 33 degrees and snowing here today. Pretty ridiculous seeing that the normal high is 69 degrees. Rough spring here so far. Hoping this pattern does not continue much longer. This is...

This has been one of the worst springs I can remember in Western PA. I have gone though over 16 pounds of freeze dried mealworms. A bunch of eggs and 3000 crickets. Feeding 80 birds is not cheap and I have been doing so quite a bit. Generally at this time they are well into egg laying but they have ...

This is typical of April here in PA. It is why i stock 11 pounds of freeze dried mealworms and ordered 3 thousand crickets. I feed a combination of mealworms, eggs and crickets each day during this weather. Without this I would likely not have a colony. Nor would most folks in the area. It is very d...

Thanks Toy. Wishing you a good season there.

Thanks Dick, I was wondering if my birds might pass through your site. Seems 9:30 is a popular arrival time for my first one now. Timing would be about right leaving early in am.

At least I have 2 here. Feeding them this morning.

Doug