Asy to roost

stan davison · Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:37 pm

I thought I kept hearing a Martin today but didn't see one till around 6 pm. This evening. It was hard to see markings but I think it was a female.. Can't wait till tommorrow..

stan davison · Sun Feb 20, 2011 1:25 am

Forgot to mention by luck I had been working on adding pine needles to those gourds and didn't have three of them plugged up. He/she entered a troyer horizontal for the night. I will try to be up before first light to see if it's male or female. This is the earliest I have had martins stay here. I will be ordering crickets. Good luck to all.

Gobbler T · Sun Feb 20, 2011 6:58 am

Good deal Stan!

Hey, If it's just an old female you can just send her back down to me

Dick Sherry · Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:56 am

Stan, congratulations on the early arrival. Hope our weather stays mild enough for it to stay comfortable.

stan davison · Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:17 pm

Thanks, Dick there are two here now and they are roosting in different cavities. They should be able to feed a little this afternoon. Weather doesn't look too bad this week.

stan davison · Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:24 pm

Thanks Gobbler T. I have an old female and now a male. I will keep my fingers crossed for you, being in MS you should have no problem.

Gobbler T · Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:10 pm

being in MS you should have no problem.

I've heard that. Don't know if I buy it. But I've heard it.

Thanks for the crossed fingers, I'll get mine eventually.

redfinch · Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:09 pm

Hi all in Tulsa. Our neighborhood in Verdigris is covered with starlings and black birds. All we can do is chase them to a different house. Do you know if they will deter our returning martins from staying this season???? Advise please.

We haven't seen any martins yet, but have a couple weeks to go yet as they arrived around 31 March last season.

Redfinch

stan davison · Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:09 pm

I have the same thing going on here. I welcome the blackbirds to my yard because 9 times out of 10 the resident coopers hawk goes after them first. If the starlings in your yard are entering your Martin house you need to eliminate them. If not they won't prevent your mRtins from returning. I have 2asy pairs as of yet and expect more when the south winds return. Have a great year!!

redfinch · Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:30 pm

Thanks, Stan. I forgot about the hawks. We do have one in the pasture next door. And like you said, it gets one of the starlings every now and then.

They can't get in the doors just sparrows but we have a trap for that. Anxious for them to arrive.

Be posting when they get here for sure.

Marley · Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:22 pm

Our first sighting was yesterday, a pair and a floater. The pair roosted and another pair showed up today but so did "Mr. Cooper". Spotted him after the kill so I'm not sure if he picked off a Martin or a Starling but he's definitely gonna be an obstacle this year. Been hanging around our deck all winter.

stan davison · Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:16 pm

Marley, do you use decoys? I have a coopers attack nearly every day mid-morning and she always hits the decoy first giving everyone time to get away. I just ordered more and have them everywhere. They really work. The martins here are used to them. Some of the females like to flirt with them but don't get any play. I also move the decoys to different locations/perches daily... Good luck with the coopers. I am relieved they are not sharpies. The only successful attacks are on grackles, but anything can happen. It is good to figure out the attack times and be visible in the yard and try to run coopers off.

Marley · Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:28 am

Thanks for the advice Stan. I'll give that a try, I probably have close to a dozen decoys around here somewhere but I haven't used them since we got the colony established. That was the second kill we've verified in 3 years but I'm pretty sure there have been more. We had 2 abandoned nests last year. I respect that guy for what he is, he's a beautiful bird, but I could do without him in my back yard.

Marley · Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:53 pm

Wow! I see what you mean Stan. I hadn't had the decoys up for more than a couple of hours before he attacked. I was on a long distance call and couldn't get out there for a minute or so. He went after three of the decoys in that time frame. This guy's gonna be a problem. Educate me on something, though. Why would you rather it be a coopers than a sharpie? I thought they were practically identical except that sharpies are more prone to go after rodents. Also, I guess I was under the false impression that sharpies only winter here.

stan davison · Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:41 pm

The sharpies can make quik turns and IMO much faster. They will move north shortly as well as most coopers. The exception is the few resident coopers, but if the keep hitting plastic they may hunt elsewhere. Move the decoys after every attack. This is very important.

redfinch · Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:53 am

Our first adult male arrived on Sat., Mar. 19th. He's been singing and waiting for the others. As of today, Tuesday, we're all still waiting. It was great to see him fly in.