Originally Posted by
Battle Axe
One Amish neighbor has a Martin colony and even sells supplies. He is quite an expert on it and even has a telescope to watch them. Several years ago there was a cold snap after the birds had eggs that were hatching. There were no flying insects available and the babies started dying. So he ordered several pounds of flying tree crickets, hoping they would fly when released and feed his birds. But it was still too cold and the crickets would not fly. So the word was sent out and we all were over and hand tossed crickets, one at a time, into the air. The Martins quickly learned what we were doing. It was the strangest feeling to see this low flying bird line himself up with you. It's just like an A-10 fighter jet locking on a target. Then at the precise moment I was to underhand toss the cricket straight up. He always caught them and flew back to the nest. Next cricket please. I wore out my arm.
I use one of the long ice cream spoons to flip crickets. Gets them nice & high in the air for them. I flipped at least 100 crickets this morning. We had snow flurries
. Had a guy from a local bird club stop in & he got to watch me feed them. We both almost got hit by a male that was very hungry. He swooped us several times.
Purple Martins rely totally on humans for housing/nesting now. In many areas they also rely on us to provide food for them due to bad weather & lack of bugs in dry spells. They only eat flying insects. Insects do not fly below 50 degrees, during high winds or during rain. If a Purple Martin can not find enough food 3 days in a row they will become to weak to fly & die soon after. Some landlords have been able to get them to eat scrambled eggs, but too many eggs can cause bowel issues, so crickets or meal worms are best.
I also provide crushed egg shells for them to eat. They not only provide grit, they provide them calcium.
What many do not know is it's a Federal offence to interfer with any wild birds (other than European Sparrows & Starlings, which are not native & considered pests), especially when they have a nest. However due to declining numbers of Purple Martins in past years they allowed landlords to do nest checks, control pests, do nest changes to control insects, etc.
The youth of today need to put down the cell phones/video games/etc & go outside & be educated about taking care of nature. If they are not I fear we may lose many of our wild birds & animals to progress, pesticides, etc.
PMCA has a great site with all the info needed to learn about Purple Martins
http://www.purplemartin.org/