My new 12 room Trendsetter arrived the other day and it is now a part of my purple martin colony. I decided to erect it without any gourds hanging below and keep the Trendsetter “pure” this season! Maybe next year four Troyer Horizontal Gourds will be hanging below! This Trendsetter is located between two of my K24 gourd racks and joins three other Trendsetters, two more 12 room houses and the big 28 compartment system.
I always enjoy erecting a new martin housing system later on in my colony and watching how the martins flock to it! If I erect one in about the middle of April when waves of SY males are arriving, then these males immediately start moving in and “fighting each other like cats and dogs”! However, I often still get ASY males to establish territory during this time and these males may be from other colony sites where they have lost their colonies for various reasons.
I erected the Trendsetter April 5 and on April 8 there are around four ASY male purple martins competing with each other for territory. Some of the males have mates. I did see one lonely SY male trying to move in but the dominant ASY males have been attacking him. Perhaps I should have waited till mid-April so the SY male martins would have a better chance of establishing territory and acquiring a mate.
I also got 12 Trendsetter wooden/aluminum nest trays and have made one modification to them: I paint them a dark brown to help preserve the wood from rainwater damage. My first nest trays with my older Trendsetters started warping/cracking after about a year’s use. During heavy rains, water may still enter the Trendsetter compartments and a wooden nest tray bottom can become soaked. I replaced all those old nest trays with new ones and since painting the nest trays and storing them after the nesting season, I haven’t noticed any damage yet.
I am believer in pre-nests so all my nest trays have pine straw nests. To make the pine straw “hold better” inside the nest tray, I have been using a “witches’ brew” of water/clay to first soak the straw. I simply mix up some water and clay to create a “mud soup”. Then I dip a handful of dry pine straw in the soup, let the excess mud/water drain off, and fashion a nest inside the nest tray with a nest bowl. It is not hard to swirl the dampened pine straw inside the nest tray to create a pre-nest with a bowl. The soupy clay/water mixture binds the pine straw together to hold its shape as it dries and helps to create a more stable foundation. While there may be is some displacement of the pine straw later on when the martins are using the compartment, the straw that is coated with mud holds together better than plain straw. Martins will usually add more material, particularly oak leaves to my nests. I have used this method with some of my plastic gourds, too to create a more stable nest foundation and help keep the pine straw from separating on the slick plastic.
My two older Trendsetters came with a round pole that I didn’t care for much. However, the newer ones now come with a two inch square aluminum pole for the 8 and 12 room Trendsetters. The larger models use a two inch square steel pole. I much prefer the square poles as I can lower the houses if storms are approaching and the houses will not spin around.
Here are some photos of my Trendsetter and the nest trays. I took these photos when all my martins were gone feeding! So no martins on the house in these photos. When I post more colony updates later, I will try to get some photos of the new Trendsetter with martins in attendance.
This photo shows my lowered Trendsetter. The Trendsetter came with two fiberglass dowels for perching rods and I added two more.
This photo shows an opened compartment with a nest tray inside.
This photo shows a nest tray with one of my pine straw pre-nests. The “mud soup” of clay and water had dried nicely on the pine straw and helped to bind the straw together in the nest tray.
The photo shows my raised Trendsetter.
Steve
Annie
