Still trying

Little Swede · Wed May 04, 2011 9:54 am

I have been working at establishing a colony at my home for the last seven years. My site is on a 7 acre man made lake and has great wide open spaces. Three year ago i finally had my first successful nest and three young fledged. shortly after that my house was destroyed in a storm so i had to build a new one. i built it with a similar shape and the same color the only change i made was to the compartment size. i made them larger, they are now 7"X10" by 7" high. The following year i had adults return in April but never stayed. Last year a had 5 to 8 sub adults at my site most of the summer but again no nets. This year had scouts return and spend about and hour in and out of the house and they returned on and off for three days then they were gone for three days. Finally returning with a female. they spent most of this Sunday doing flybys and again i have not seen them since. Is this normal or are they likely from another colony and just visiting.
as a child we had 20 plus pair here in the Fond du Lac area and to have Martins again brings back such fond memories. Anyone,s thoughts on what is going on at my site would be appreciated

GeneP · Wed May 04, 2011 9:29 pm

Hello Little,

Welcome to the forum. I can't offer much but it seems you have plenty of time for returning adults and even more time for sub adults.

You might want to try some of the attraction tips that are offered here such as: playing the Dawn Song, Decoys, pre-nesting your compartments.

If you post a photo of your site I'm sure others would be of help. You've had them before and had no predator problems so I'm sure you'll get some back in time.

mjneppl · Wed May 04, 2011 9:41 pm

welcome to wisconsin ---i know people been trying for 20 years plus.

good luck i am going on 3 years trying here--in south dakota my first year i had 3 pair.

Little Swede · Thu May 05, 2011 7:14 am

Thank you for the reply I have been playing the dawn Song religiously for four years now and does seem to keep the visitors interested. I do know that the nearest active site is about 4 miles away which does not help. I will take a new photo but thought that this one from last year was quite interesting. I think I will need to make the nest boxes larger.

mjneppl · Thu May 05, 2011 7:40 am

i hate to say this --but i do not like your setup.

If you are serious about this. i would get the plans and build a Northstar wood house. also get some gourds and hang the gourds under the Northstar. Gourds worked best for me in South Dakota and I had 17 pair.

little story about up around Seymour, wi--- when we moved here in 1980 there were about 7-8 places/farms that had martins.

here we are 30 years later --and not one of those places have them anymore.

flyin-lowe · Thu May 05, 2011 9:48 am

Little Swede
I don't think there is anything majorly wrong with your setup. It would be hard to make that call from the one picture. It is hard to tell how close your house is to the tree in the foreground. That would be the main issue. You can look around and see hundreds of different style houses that all work. The key is (and again it is hard to tell from this picture) can you open that house to access the nests at all. Also do you have starlings in your area? If so you might want to consider sometime in the future getting some SREH (starling resistant entry hole) plates that can screw right on to the house. You would likely have to make your current holes larger but that is not a huge issue, many landlords use round holes.

As far as you original question it would not be uncommon for returning martins to spend very little time at your site in the beginning. Sometimes mine leave before I get up and they don't come back all day until just before dark. Sometimes after they arrive the spend a day and then are gone for a couple days and then return. If they are going to stay they will start spending more and more time around the housing and will soon be bringing in nesting material.

Little Swede · Thu May 05, 2011 10:12 am

The nearest tree to the house is over 40' away. i do have nuisance starling however i have done a good job keeping the out. I have "eliminated 6 so far this year and the minute they start to try and nest i clean the box and try and kill the invader. Unfortunately i have a starling free site on the weekend but they seem to know the minute that i go to work. i will most likely have to try converting to SREH. Being that i keep the starling at bay is there mere presence in the area enough to keep the martins from settling in and if so will switching the openings actually help. Typically the starling issue in my are ends by mid May.

flyin-lowe · Thu May 05, 2011 11:55 am

The bad things about starlings is that all it takes is one. You can be at work and one starling passing through can stop in and start killing. At a new site it doesn't take a whole lot to discourage martins, starling just being around might not run investigating martins off but a little harassment goes a long way.

Bill Pec · Thu May 05, 2011 12:39 pm

Little Swede,

Being a Swede, my wife loves your user name. I too will advise you to put starling resistant entrances on the house and hang some tunnelled gourds with starling resistant entrances. Last year I watched martin after martin visit my martin house and leave. Taking the advice of others I hung four gourds. Within two days I acquired my first pair and soon after a second pair. This year I offered twelve gourds, a Trendsetter House and a heavily modified Natures House. The first eleven pairs of birds to arrive settled in the gourds and one settled in a house. Now that the gourds are full birds are moving into the houses. My friend is having the same results. This year he is offering fifteen gourds and three houses. Of his first fifteen pairs, fourteen selected the gourds.

Bill

Aaron H · Thu May 05, 2011 12:56 pm

Hello, I just thought i would say from the picture of your sit-up it sure
does look like you have a good situp for martins, The only thing i see
that might help you get your start in martins is if you could hang 4 big
gourds with tunnels and sreh holes under your house, are on another
pole good luck to you.

Little Swede · Mon May 16, 2011 12:30 pm

Well I have not seen a Martin in 16 days so I took the advise of those of you who responded to me and built a T-14 with SREH's this past week. I put it up Saturday in hopes of catching the eye of the returning subbies if nothing else

Bill Pec · Mon May 16, 2011 1:36 pm

All I can say is WOW, GREAT JOB

Bill

Little Swede · Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:29 am

Well yesterday i finally had two SY-M and one female to my site and spend the entire day on and off. They all returned again (or stay the night) at 5:00 AM. i know the clock is ticking but if they stick around is there still time for a brood. It appears that two of them are a pair but they sure seem to have trouble with the SREH on my new house. Besides that they sure seem to like it.

Little Swede · Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:29 am

Well yesterday i finally had two SY-M and one female to my site and spend the entire day on and off. They all returned again (or stay the night) at 5:00 AM. i know the clock is ticking but if they stick around is there still time for a brood. It appears that two of them are a pair but they sure seem to have trouble with the SREH on my new house. Besides that they sure seem to like it.

razman · Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:57 am

good job on the T-14, looks great! sounds like you have some activity now, hopefully some will move IN!

just a thought on your original house...looks like some kind of heron or large bird statue fixed to the top of the house. couldn't this possibly confuse/scare the martins? Rick

Ed Pace · Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:59 am

You do fast work thats good. Now just attach some gourds to it as already advised and that might do it. Yes, you still have time. Good luck to you.. Ed

Little Swede · Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:37 pm

That is an actual heron on the original house!

razman · Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:25 pm

oh! LOL....ok