Advice sought on raising/lowering a trio castle

[Scully]

Near a Tex-Mex place where my wife and I commonly eat on Sundays, behind an old car wash in a dilapidated alley sits one of the more remarkable martin colonies I know.

A two stack (12 room) castle missing half its doors (one of which open compartments hosted a martin nest), full of sparrows except for two pairs of martins (no photo).

A leaning Carrol pole supporting a three stack castle with the roof bent up and half blown-off (one pair of martins).



..and, right behind the dumpster, a 24 room castle barely ten feet off of the ground...



Turns out the houses were originally put up some years back by a retired gentleman in a nearby residence who, last I heard, was in poor health.

These three house have suffered neglect for at least a few years.

It would be no trouble at all for me to toss out the sparrows once a week if I could lower the housing. They sit barely ten feet off of the ground, maybe too low for starlings in this busy location.

With the first Trio, the 12 roomer missing half its doors, I did this already. I wish I would have thought to take a photo of the martin nest in the doorless compartment, it was an ASY pair from last year. I don't know if they fledged any young. I did find a stone in one doorless compartment.

The Carrol telescoping pole had been left up for so long I was unable to budge the pole sections at all. I know carrol poles real well and will bring supplies to work on this next week.

The big Trio castle is more of a puzzle. I have never worked one before. The steel cable look sound with a bit of surface rust. I see the cable that pulls it down, how does it go back up? Is it counterweighted inside?

Also, how do I operate the crank?




This one's a tad out of focus




Worse case scenario, I lower it and it wont go back up by the cable, but if that happens I figure I can just push it back up with a pole from underneath and hold it in place any number of ways.

Mind boggling that these maybe fifteen ASY martins come back clear from South America every year to this neglected location.

Mike Scully

[John Barrow]

Mike,
The top picture is a Heath house. It has a telescoping pole. Pull the pins out and twist it down (unless it's fused together, in which case you will need to add some oil/penetrant to the two section joints. Beyond that, the house is unaccessible without separating the floors--a bolt underneath each section locks it to the pole.

The bottom house is a trio castle. The cable runs up through the house, over the pulley and attaches to the house under the top. I suspect the house was lowered and cleaned out (sparrow nests, etc) prior to this season--at least it looks that way. That's a heavy cable. I would think you could lower it and raise it safely. If the house sticks trying to lower it--get a pole and push down on the top and that should loosen it. The trio compartments should lift up for nestchecks. They are tabbed in place at their bottom-center, and pivot on a horizontal rod at their top.

Sad times, bro, but typical of what most martins come back to. What's the name of the restaurant you frequent?

[Scully]

John,

I honestly forget the name of the restaurant, we have so many. Its about 200 yards inside Loop 410 on Broadway on the left hand side, located in an old-style former Diary Queen building. I can recommend it, one of those place where se habla espanol and a great migas plate with fresh tortillas and coffee will set ya back about $7.00

How do I operate the hand crank? How does it lock once up?

..and if anyone has been kicking out sparrows over the years I haven't seen it...

I hear ya about the most martins returning to that thing. So far we have more than 100 housing sites located within five miles of our school, about half of which appear to host martins, and almost all of which have S&S.

We ballpark an average "colony" size of ~2 pairs per house.

The thing is, most all of the martin housing is old, often very old, likely pre-dating the present human residents of many properties. What newer housing there is in our area is almost entirely S&K, about half the time with SREH's. But it doesn't appear there is enough new housing going up to replace the old.


In the brand-new developements, little or no martin housing going up at all, as much as anything I'd guess on account of homeowner's association restrictions as well as the postage-stamp sized lots common now..

The impression I have in my immediate area is that the local martin population is bound to crash over the next decade or so due to a steady loss of housing, even bad housing.

I walked out to our martin gourdsets out in back of school today and there was a male ASY martin sitting on a gourd hanging not four feet off of the ground that we had set out for temperature testing. A mark of desperation I'd guess, it seems as if all of our regular forty gourds are already claimed.

I'd like to attribute it just to dilligent care, but I think a large part of the reason we can fill just about every gourd we put up is that we have been enjoying a sort of false prosperity. We are steadily becoming the only game around for martins returning to this particular neighborhood

...and while I'm this dark mood, I might as well note that, golly, I hope it rains soon....

Mike

[Fatman608]

Mike, there is no counterweight. Looks to me the piece of metal that sticks out is the release for the winch. If you would like some help let me know since we live close together or better said I would like to lend a hand if I can.

[Scully]

608...

I'd appreciate some help This time of year Sundays are my only free day (I'll send you a pm).

I do believe the homeowners in back of the alley would be supportive, at least the two I spoke to seemed to be. I'm hoping the worthy gent who put them up is still around so he knows someone appreciated his handiwork in that unlikely place.

He even put up signs... "The Garden of Alley", and I'd guess once upon a time he had wildflowers planted there too.

Mike

[Fatman608]

Sounds great just send me a pm and I will give you my phone number.

[Matt F.]

Mike,
Fatman608 is right on the money. Here is the exact description of that winch, and it's components, from Nature House:

Two safety features are designed into the winch. First, a
brake mechanism to carry the weight of the house and, sec-
ond, a ratchet and pawl to hold weight of house. The pawl
lever is on upper left of winch. In operation, it is necessary
to disengage pawl to lower house. To adjust brake, tighten
spring tension by turning wing nut on lower right in clock-
wise direction until brake will hold weight of house. Raise
house an inch or two and release pawl. If house slips down,
tighten brake further.
To reduce tampering with installation, pawl and winch case can be fastened together through
holes provided. If this is desired, use bolt and nut, wire or padlock for this purpose.

Great work Mike!

I may have some extra, Trio, round hole doors. I'd be happy to ship them to you.

[zoefluf]

Your extraordinary efforts for the Martins is very highly commendable and extremely cool. People like you CAN and DO make a difference. For all the Martins who will benefit from your efforts, Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!
Jeanne

[Dick Sherry]

Mike, that is good of you to try and improve this colony for the martins. Check the cable on the Castle set-up for rust, especially where the cable may contact the sides of the crank assembly. Last year I had the cable on a Castle snap as it was being cranked up, and it was due to rust eating through the cable. Spare parts are available from Nature House, if you find things that need to be replaced on the house, pole or the winch and cable.

[oneidalaker]

mike, third picture from the bottom shows the safety latch (or what ever its called). Slide it up the pole to a position above your head and pull the handle out to lock it in place. This way if the cable breaks the safety latch will break the fall. The winch is operated as follows, (second picture from the bottom) depress the lever at the top of the winch assembly with your left hand and then work the crank with your fight. When the house is where you want it, let the lever go with your left you can then let goof the handle. You'll need to lower the safety catch once you frop the house down to that level.

[Sandy - NC]

Scully, do those power wires run directly over the house? If so, how high above the house are they? If those are high voltage wires, says 13,000+ volts, electricity can jump quite a distance. Just because it hasn't done it yet, doesn't mean it won't at sometime, so do be careful. If they are within 30-40 feet of the house, I highly recommend wearing heavy duty rubber boots and as heavy rubber gloves as you can find. Make sure you are not standing in water and be very careful.

[oneidalaker]

Sandy brings up a good point, I'd check with the utility company before I touched that Heath house. You can call and ask for the line supervisor, tell him the the location and he'll advise you on whether or not you can safely access that house.

[Scully]

Mission accomplished

Fatman608 and myself met out there this morning and spent about two neighborly hours.

I was gratified to see that only two out of the several house sparrow nests I pulled out of the two stack Trio last week were in the process of being rebuilt. We pulled 'em out again.

By and large the Trio Castle mechanism worked just fine, though the cable is a tad frayed. Amazing that any martin cavities were left at all, I'd guess that two thirds were plugged up by sparrows. It had been so long since the cavities had been cleaned that actual topsoil had formed at the bottom.

Didn't hurt things any that there were as many as 24 ASY martins circling close overhead, waiting for us to get finished.

The Heath house was a sort of bad revelation. I'm amazed that something built that cheap and that flimsy would still hold martins, but they do. Enough open seams and edges to be practically transparent yet martins use 'em anyway. This three stacker is missing half its roof panels on top and two of the six floor panels on the bottom.

Before we cleaned it out only one livable compartment was occupied by martins, the rest were all plugged up with sparrow nests. As soon as we put it back up all cleaned out THREE pairs of ASY martins immediately moved in on this flimsy structure, one beautiful male "eeking" from inside a newly cleaned out cavity to a female on the porch.

This while we were still standing and talking right next to the pole

Mike Scully

[Matt F.]

Great report Mike!!!!

Bravo to you, and Fatman608, for the great work!

Post more photos of those setups, if you get the chance.

[Guest]

Great job Scully,
I look at these houses and have a hard time that they are more or less intact. In the climate I live in there would have been nothing left after a couple of winters.