Indiana Martins

[Christopher Norris]

Tom

My Pair both ASY have being nest building this week, the only down side is that my ASY male is building 3 nests for the other 2 SY females. He thinks he has 3 mates. The unfortunate thing is that I had a couple SY males here this week and my ASY male run them off.

[Indiana_Tom]

Chris,

Sounds like your colony is pointed in the right direction. Your male will soon have a long "Honey Do List" and won't have the time or energy to chase the others around.

I have had several others stop by and look at the gourds but they don't stay long. My ASY male thinks he has a mate but I am not convinced she is committed yet. I don't think she spent the night last night and I won't be home tonight to watch. The male takes off for a few minutes and brings back 2 or three martins. He heads straight into his gourd and sings a lot. The new comers circle some but then drift away.

There must be some SY's here because I wouldn't think he would get that many females here. Don't know yet. They are not landing so I can't get a good look at them.

As always, good luck this year.
Tom

[Christopher Norris]

Tom

I am up to 21 staying the night

Chris

[Grady]

You guys are really good or really patient to be abe count your birds - probably both! I try in the evenings but it seems they all come down at once. Some duck immediately into their houses while some stay out later than I do. Here in Aurora, I have somewhere in the 32-38 individual bird range. A couple of days ago I counted 14 cavities with active "green leaf" nest building. I had four pairs last year and if I'm lucky, it looks like I'll have a big increase over that.

Happy 2010!

[Rich Jewell In]

I have 4 pair so far. 3 in the back yard and 1 (last year return) in the front t-14. Had serval new ones around this morning but I don't know if they stayed. Could be sy's, I'm not sure. This is the first time I had a martin stay in my coates waters edge. No problems with them learning the crescents. It could be a good year!

Rich

[Indiana_Tom]

Hi Hoosiers,

And anyone else that is here.

I have three pair now and am well satisfied with the progress this year. My ASY pair have been here the longest and are busy building. A SY pair are mostly watching and getting aquainted and my new sy pair are not sure what they are supposed to do yet. I picked up the last two pair this last week. I had almost decided I would only have the one older pair this year. Since I just got two more pair, I am still watching to see if more arrive.

I live out in the country and my neighbor put up a trio house last year. He didn't have any luck last year. This year, I was talking to another neighbor and told him if they spoke, to let him know his trio was too close to the trees. Two days later it was moved. It is still too close but better than it was. He has an ASY pair now but I worry about them because they are sharing the house with a pair of starlings and a pair of house sparrows. They don't seem to be having problems yet but I don't think there are any eggs in the house yet. I can see his martin house when I am out watching mine and end up watching his pair quite a bit. If I get a chance to talk to him I will let him know the hazards of letting the starling and sparrow nest there. His martin house has round entrance holes so I will let him know about the SREH should he decide to change them.

That is about it for now. Should have some eggs showing up soon.

Good luck to all

Tom

[flyin-lowe]

It looks like I am finally going to get a colony started after about 5 years of trying. I have an ASY with an SY female that have been here for about a week and a half. Then I have three more SY (two males, haven't gotten a good look at the last one yet) that have been here for about 4 days. I haven't been around in the evenings but I am sure they are spending the night as they are out preening every morning bright and early. This morning they were all going to the ground bringing in nesting material so I hope to have at least one pair and hopefully some of the SY's will pair up and I can get some more. The tough part is they just showed up and now I am leaving town for a week so I won't be around, but I can't wait to see how things look next Friday when I get home. My wife has no interest in PM's so she won't keep me updated either.

[jonkertb]

well, Flyinlowe......if you've been faithful in sparrow and starling control, they'll be fine with you gone a week.....come back to the beginning of your colony with excitment!!!! CONGRATS

[Indiana_Tom]

Sounds really great flyin-lowe,

As far as being gone for a week. It should not be a problem. I am retired now and watch my martins every morning and every evening. It sort of makes me feel like I am doing something. The truth is, but don't tell them, the martins take care of themselves. I have an ASY pair building as fast as they can but it seems like for every nice day we get, we get two cold cloudy days. It seems the martins are trying to wait for the warm sunny weather to become the majority.

Anyway, you will do just fine and may even have more martins when you get back.

Have a nice trip.

Tom

[flyin-lowe]

Ive been gone since last Sund. and will be home tonight. My wife said it has been raining and cold every since I left. Has the weather been that bad in IN or have there been some breaks in the weather for feeding? My wife seems to think if it's cool and been raining for a couple hours the entire day is shot.
Hopefully I get home from the airport before dark so I can check things out and see who is hanging around.

[Indiana_Tom]

Hey flyin-lowe,

Glad to hear you are back. Hope you had a good trip.

It has been rainy and cool here this past week. I tried to feed my martins but they were not interested so I am assuming that they were not that hungry. The nights have been chilly and the days only in the 50's. The rain has been intermittent with usually some feeding time each day. The tempature would probably limit the number of food available though. I have had a tough time seeing my martins because they were either hanging out in the back of the gourds or out feeding until late in the evening. I have been checking on them every evening until dark and was worried that I might have gone from three pair to one. This morning was the first sunny morning we have has all week so I was out early watching for them. All were there. I had stayed out last night until after dark and had not seen my ASY pair. evidently they came in after I came in. All came out of the gourds just after the sun hit them this morning.

A long story short, you should be fine. They seem to be doing ok but putting off the family life until it gets back into the 70's and 80's. That is supposed to start in the next day or two.

Let me know what you find with your colony.

Tom

[Indiana_Tom]

flyin-lowe,

I tried to find out where Mooreland, Indiana was and it must be so large that it didn't need to be listed under cities and towns.

If you get a chance, give me a direction and distance from Indy.

My weather report was from the area 40 miles south west of Indy.




TomNEVER MIND, I FOUND IT. WHAT WE HAD SHOULD BE CLOSE. THE EAST SIDE OF INDIANA GOT A LITTLE COOLER AT NIGHT, BUT NOT MORE THAN TWO OR THREE DEGREES.

[flyin-lowe]

Well it was dark and raining when I got home last night. I woke up this morning and my ASY male was here and he had 6 buddies with him. There appear to be a few more males then females right now. They are all going up and down collecting nesting material. I took a pic of the house this morning and hopefully I can get some help telling how many females I have. After I took the pic I counted 8 PM's on the house so my numbers are looking good right now for my first year with nesting PM's. The weather is supposed to be be sunny and in the 80's next week.

PS, Mooreland is a metropolis that sits about halfway between Muncie and New Castle, if you look on a map I live right against Summit Lake and a few miles south of the Muncie resevoir.

[Indiana_Tom]

Lookin good flyin-lowe,

Thanks for the pics. I can't tell gender from the pics but it is a nice picture. Did you build the T14 or purchase it? I have one I built but left off the bottom floor to make it a T10. Buying ceder lumber is sure not cheap but it will last a good while. I originally tried to make my own sreh from 1/4 inch plastic but had trouble getting the dimensions right. Finally decided to order SREH's for Natureline gourds and attaching them to the entrance of each cavity. That worked well and made the nest cavity about an inch deeper.

I figured your martins would do ok. The rain has been spaced out with periods of cloudy weather. I was more worried about the cool weather because of its effect on the bug population.

Each year is different and this is no exception but the next problem I am watching out for is mites. When and if they come they will start showing up as darker splotches around the entrance and seams. I use sevin dust under the nesting material as soon as I see them. I only use about a half teaspoon per nest and that did the trick last year.

I did find Mooresland on the map finally. It was not listed in the index of my atlas. I pulled up your profile and then looked for it in Henry County. I live in the country about five miles from mega city of 450.

Anyway, glad your back home and have a good year. Your off to a good start.

Tom

[flyin-lowe]

I built the T14 and modified the pole and carrier myself. It was a fun "chore" a few winters ago. I just cut square holes in the T14 and then ordered the plastic plates from the PMCA. I didn't want to risk ruining an entire door because I messed up one cut, I don't have that must trust in my skills.

[Christopher Norris]

All

I am up to at least 34 birds now, cant really count them anymore

Chris

[Indiana_Tom]

Hi Chris,

You are doing well. Looks like the weather is straighting up for us. Going to be hot now. I am not sure what I have here and I don't have many. I stayed out at the gourd rack until just before it was too dark to see tonight. I saw two pair each go into their gourds. It was almost dark but I don't think either pair was my ASY pair. He and his mate seem to stay out late. I am going out early and see who comes out in the morning. If I can get three pair, I will be elated. My martins should start nest building again soon. They stopped when the cool weather came back. That should help in determining how many pair I have.

In the mid morning hours I have several visitors and they are fun the watch and very pleasant to listen too. It has been a good year so far although the weather put a slowdown to their family plans. Last year when it got hot and the hatchlings were young, my single pairs nest got mites so I am expecting them again. It is amazing how quickly they multiply. one day you can't see any and the next time you look, there are dark splotches on the gourds. The splotches were small groups of mites. I use a small amount of Sevin dust under the nest to get rid of them and it works well.

If you see any traveling martins heading north, let me know and I will leave the light on for them.

Take care
Tom

[Grady]

Three nests with eggs. I've had the oportunity to actually watch the birds in the mornings on a couple of occasions; usually I'm on my way to work or otherwise not "stopping to smell the roses." The birds have taken to my recently planted garden for nest building materials. I have seen 6 or 8 at a time in this 30 x 30 foot, mostly dirt, garden. They seeem to like last year's dead plant remnants. Although I knew they had to hit the ground occasionally, I had never seen it before.

[Indiana_Tom]

Having a lot of activity here the last couple of days since the weather warmed up. May end up with 7 or 8 pair this year.

Have a new ASY that has spent three days here. He is having a hard time of it. He has been trying to get into several of the crescent holed gourds and can't make it. I watched him try 10 or 15 times on three gourds. Finally he found one and after a lot of work, he finally squeezed in. He had not been there 5 seconds when an upset female charged in. There was a little ruckus in the gourd and he decided it was time to leave. Trouble was it took him a good 30 seconds to get out on the porch. I figure his tail feathers took the worst of it. He is still hanging around and is making it in and out of a gourd faster now. He must have spent the winter here local fattening up on cricket - cicles.

I was having so many martins arriving for the past two days that I went to the garage and added 4 additional gourds. Looks a little crowded but no complaints from the zoning commission yet.

No eggs yet but they can't be too far off.

I didn't put up my T-10 this year. Didn't get much interest in it last year. Probably should have had it up also.

Best of luck to all.
Tom

[jonkertb]

For this Indiana landlord it will be known as the year of the owl.....with numbers come troubles and mine is in the form of a Great Horned Owl that we've seen the evidence of a few times and have seen him arrive at dusk 5 times now....last night we saw him swoop up to one of the houses and hang there wings outstretched while this old man in his undies went running across the grass making assorted noises.....he flew when I got under the house.....much as I hate him eating here he sure is an awesome sight up close...huge!....last nest check had 59 nests 8 with eggs so the laying is beginning
tom