How's this season going for you so far??

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

My housing is as full as it was last year (mostly full), and I don't have any SY birds that I noticed. We had a long cold winter, it seems like most of the martins came in later this year, probably due to the weather. When they did come, and they still seem to be coming, they came in bunches. We didn't have the normal south winds either this spring which helps to bring them in. I see no difference in numbers here from previous years.

[martinteach]

Last year we had over 100 eggs. Our birds arrived in waves...and the last arrivals really started too late. We lost several young birds in the heat of summer after school was finished.

This year we now have 21 eggs as of last week. I have chosen to stop expanding because I can't keep up with all of the work, but it looks like we have a lot more occupancy this year. All 8 gourds are filled, and about 75% of both wooden houses.

The sparrows seem to be the same as last year. I have pulled an average of 3 sparrow nests a week with approximately a total of 15 eggs.

Daryle Esswein
Fifth grade teacher

[CHenry]

Last year i think i had 10 pair with several hatchlings of which most were killed when lightning hit the pole so i really didn't know what to expect this year.
End of March I had one pair show up and stay and last night I saw another SY and she stayed.
Still hope that i will fill a few more gourds this year.

[Courtney-NC]

2008-Had 2-3 ASY males pay me a visit one morning around 10am and that was it.
2009-Had daily visits from a subbie male between 9:00-10:30am
2010-Nothing yet, but see high flyovers from ASY birds every day at 2:30.
They must have a watch.
Dawnsong does not call them down like it did for the subbie last year.

So, 0-0-0.

I do have 3 species of birds nesting in my yard though - a cardinal, a titmouse, and a bluebird, so I still feel blessed.

[Jeremy Shuler]

Last year 1 solo SY male. This year 0 with a lot of lookers.

[Lewis]

Last year I had 4 pair in Trio and 1 gourd. I did not do nest checks,but a number fledged. No predation that I know of. This year I added a gourd rack with 16 THG. I also modified the Trio and added 4 THG. So far this year I have counted 18 birds. I think I have 9 pair all ASY. Did nest check had 15 completed nest. No eggs.

This my second year PMCA member and for this forum. I have learned a great deal and will try to become a good landlord.

Lewis

[Steven Spencer]

Last year had 70 pairs and this year I have about the same. The only difference is this year all compartments are occupied by asy birds. This is my fifth year here and my colony is "aging". As Emil said, it was slow starting out with the persistent north wind in Feb/March but has quickly caught up.

[KathyF]

My martins were 2 weeks earlier this year than in the past 3 years and the numbers have grown quickly.

I now have approximately 45 - 50 ASY birds, with no SY yet. I think I've picked up the ASYs from some neighbor's housing that has been destroyed.

One year ago today(4/19), my first SY male landed. I still haven't spotted one here yet.

[jeanf]

It was going great (4 pair) until I found one of my hens running around with the egg I wrote about in my "Egg Mystery" post. I'm heartbroken. I also realized that on my April 10th egg check I somehow missed the egg(s) because that egg had a really formed baby bird inside of it. There are three more eggs in the nest and I'll be setting HOSP traps again today. Now I'm ticked so they better stay away from my Martin house.

[Guest]

2009 WAS MY FIRST YEAR
I HAD 2 PAIR THAT 10 FLEDGED
WITH 3 EXTRA MALE AND 1 FEMALE, ALL SY MARTINS
2010 I HAVE 2 PAIR WITH 3 MALES TRYING TO FIND FEMALES
I'M HAVING A GOOD YEAR
SY MARTINS WILL BE HAVE FIRST OF MAY
THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP
PICTURES COMING SOON
DENNIS

[Stingray]

Thanks to all that responded.
I broke out your responses into five categories with regard to martins
in 2010 vs 2009

# Martins
None
7
Less
6
Same
7
More
7
Unsure
1

Interestingly, for the most part the categories bore out almost identical numbers.
It would be interesting to see how this plays out as the season progresses.
Some have made changes that helped. Others (myself included) made changes and so far have not seen a benefit from them.
Last year I addded a pole with six supergourds on it and had a nice little increase over 2008.
This year after trimming a Mahogany tree in our backyard to afford even more clear area, I have two less pair than last year.
On the upside, this pair has built a beautiful nest!
Glad to see so many doing well!!
The rest of us can just keep our fingers crossed and hope to attract our little winged wonders.

Thanks again for posting. If we can keep learning from each other, we'll all be better informed landlords.

Regards,
Pedro

[Guest]

Last year I had 2 SY pairs
This year it appears I have 2 ASY pairs staying the night, SY birds not here yet

[Todd Wright]

Last year I had 2 pair that fledged. This year I have 6 ASY pairs building nest and several SY males hanging around.

[lynnh]

2007 2pair 8 fledged 2008 4pair 14fledged 2009 21pair 91 fledged 2010 4th season 19 ASY pair and counting. 3 extra ASY females. Hoping for at least 30 pair. Best of luck to everyone! This truly is a great time of year.

[Grady]

Last year 4 breeding pairs. I just came in from trying to count. I haven't seen more than six for the last four days but there are twelve total birds today. They are flying in between my three poles and checking out the apartments. It has rained here since about midnight last night and just stopped. I don't know when they came but it had to be between about 5 pm yesterday and right now. Pretty Happy. Sorry I can't break them down into ASY, SY etc. They just won't sit still long enough. I'll do a nest check tomorrow to see what I can see. I didn't want to interrupt their examinations of my offerings.

[Guest]

So far so good but they were about a week to 10 days later this year compared to the last two years. So far I've got 7 pairs I think. Knock on wood so far the weather has been very good with no really long cold snaps. No nests yet.

[Carlton]

2009 I ended up with 22 pairs

Until today, I have only had about 14 birds here. Now today, ALL OF A SUDDEN, they appear to have finally arrived in force. When they came in tonight I could not even keep track of them. I was overjoyed! They are even sleeping in my new Trendsetter house with Excluder entrances. Zipped in like it was nothing. I feel like they must have been here before as they seem so at home. Maybe I will get a better count tomorrow morning when they come out. I was very concerned that something had happened to them.

I wanted to tell you that I set up my first satellite site today at a state park marina. I used one of my old telescoping poles and 6 Troyer Horizontal Gourds with tunnels. It is about ten minutes from my home site. The setup has already attracted peoples' interest.

Carl

[Guest]

2008 - 2 visitors (observed)- 0 nesting pairs
2009 - 1 visitor - 0 nestng pairs
2010 - 2 visitors - 0 nesting pairs

Stingray I am about 4 hours north of you.

[Suzette McGowen]

Twenty compartments.

Last year 11 pairs.

This year almost a full house, last few nights too many birds to accurately count.

We are very pleased.

[Glenda Detling]

Last year we had 16 out of 18 compartments nested. One we gave up on because of a very persistent starling. I finally closed up the entrance.
This year we completely re-confirgured our set up. We replaced our metal housing units with all gords. I don't expect as many this year just because of the change. It's hard to tell at this point how many are actually being nested. We have eggs in six gords, so far...and leaves in most of the others. We are still fighting off a starling. I've discarded the nest material daily and 4 eggs already. We set a trap in that one gord one day and managed to trap a martin So, we're not planning on doing that again. I may close up the one gord soon. The HOSP trap is working well. (I hate that part). I'll keep you posted on how the season goes.