A success story

[nbaum]

I have been trying to attract martins for 10 years. I had T-14's at my home in Illinois and at my lake house in whitewater, WI. I have given up in Illinois because I have only had two visitors in the 10 years of trying. My Whitewater home is a different story. I had a T-14 with gourds on land for 7 years with no success at nesting. I decided to put another house at the end of my pier two years ago. The house is a SK bungalow. I don't like the house but I got it free. The first year out I had one nesting pair in the SK house. Last year I had three in the SK house and two in the T-14 gourds.
I bought a new SK bungalow house on Ebay and made a setup so I could lower the house with a winch. I did not have that option earlier because the pier end presented problems.. This year 5 of the 6 SK houses have nests and there are 7 nests in the t-14. I appear to have cornered the market on martins on my lake! They just seem to keep coming. What a problem to have. I was playing the dawn song but the last couple years only the daytime chatter CD. I built the T-14 and discovered the starling resistant openings were a little to low. I opened them up to 1 3/16" as required.
I am trapping shooting and killing sparrows as they show up. I have one starling that has managed to nest in a Troyer gourd with Conley 2 openings. Till now the starlings have not been a problem. I tell people who want martins "don't even try for martins unless you are okay with killing sparrows and starlings".
Bottom line is hang in there. I would prefer to not have the pier end housing because the martins seem to arrive before the local marina puts the piers in. Every year I put the housing on the pier and by the time I get off the pier there is a martin on it. Nothing seems to attract martins like other martins. Do some different things to get that first pair. I could not lower the housing at the piers end for the first couple years so off of a step ladder I put a bit of Sevin at the entrance to control pests. No doubt the presence of the lake has helped greatly. I am however within 20 feet of large trees and the pier end house is only 8 feet above the pier. The young birds are still arriving so I expect more nests this weekend. I never even hoped for a colony this large.

[Anthony Neira]

Congrat.s , nbaum, you are Very considerate of the Martins needs & safty, Good luck, & Hope you ( and everyone else) have a great season!

[madattiver]

Congrats on the success! It's always nice to read stories like this. Best of luck with you this season.

[Larry Budrow]

Congrats Norm!

I live just north of you in Hawthorn Woods, Illinois. It took me 15 years to get my first pair and finally 1 ASY pair last year. The male returned on April 19th this year and stayed for a week and then left. So back to starting over.
I also monitor several sites at different forest preserves in Lake county. The Eagle Scouts build the T-14s or they are donated by different people or groups and the Forest preserve provides the sites. They always seem to get multi pairs the first year. These sites are producing hundreds of offspring each season so don't give up on Illinois.

Larry Budrow

[nbaum]

56 eggs as of last Saturday!!!

[Anthony Neira]

Fantastic news for you Norm, Way to go ! ( And for Adam & Larry also !)