Keep playing the songs?

[Diane Porter]

One SY pair (our first nesters) have a nest with 4 eggs due to hatch next week. About three other SY males spend time at the colony every day, sometimes singing, something going in and out of gourds, and sometimes just flying around the gourd rack.

I've kept the daytime chatter going, in hopes of making it seem like it's a more active colony. But is this a good idea, or should I stop with the songs now?

[Mike in NC]

It took me five years of playing the dawnsong / daytime chatter to get martins at my site - with few visitors during those years. Now that I have a few nesting pair (my first year with martins), I've stopped with playing the martin music. We get tons of visitors now. Our resident martins do a far better job of attracting other birds than the recorded songs ever could. We stopped with the music once we had nests underway.

Nothing attracts martins like other martins. Once you have nesting birds, I think the recorded martin music is superfluous.

Just my personal observations and thoughts - others may disagree...