Add a perching wire to gourd racks?

[AnnieM]

I read several posts that martins love to gather and perch on telephone pole wires. We have no telephone pole wires nearby, but I'm thinking about adding a smooth wire stretched between our two gourd racks. The poles are about 20 feet apart. Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions? How thick should the wire be? Would a double twist smooth wire work? The perch rods are about a quarter inch diameter, but that seems awfully thick for a wire. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Anthony Neira]

Annie, I do know that the perch rods on top of Troyer's poles are 3/8" wide. Good Luck!

[Ron Alsop]

Hi Annie, I am considering adding a wire also except mine would be between my gourd rack and my T-14 pole. I will first have to add an extension on the gourd pole to keep the wire level. My concern is that a very thick wire could sag unless pulled pretty tight. Then, if you get too tight, you might be causing added stress to one or both poles. I do however agree with your thoughts because I have seen martins using wires often. A friend who has added a wire has martins who routinely land on the wire first and then go to the gourds or housing units from there. They just seem to like that. My thinking is that I'm going to use a wire thicker than clothes line wire but not as thick as the perch rods are. Good Luck, just wanted to share my thoughts!

[Dave Reynolds]

AnnieM --- A friend of mind did just that.. He had three T-14's in a straight line, so he added a wire from one t-14 to the next one and then to the next one. He did it through the top of the T-14's poles, so the houses could still be raised and lowered with out messing with the wire. The wire he used was some old round TV cable. The birds loved it.

Dave

PS: Welcome to Forum Ron..

[Peter Alberda]

I put two old twenty five foot power poles in the ground about sixty feet apart and hung aluminum 3/8 stranded cable on that. I got the poles free from a neighbor and the wire also free from our power company. The birds love it.

[~Ray~Gingerich]

My martins prefer this wire, there's another 1/4 inch wire below it on the other side of the pole but my martins seldom use it.

[AnnieM]

Peter, I like your telephone poles! I can hear my husband now if I tried to hit him with that idea. I see a little sag in the wire and that is just what I was thinking, Ron, to get it tight but not too tight so when we get a wind/t-storm and the top of the poles move a bit, don't want the wire to be too tight between the poles and cause a problem. My hubby says he has a couple different sizes wire in his shed, so will put it up and post some pics. If the wire is too small, maybe there will be pics of PMs hanging upside down!!

[AnnieM]

Wow! Ray that is a really cool pic! Looks like they definitely prefer the heavier version. Our span is short (20') so maybe we can get away with using a heavier wire than I was thinking of. Thanks for the up close view.

[Louise Chambers]

Annie, you could put up a perching tree - a tall pole with perch rods on top, homemade. A wire between two gourd racks will make it tricky to lower just one or the other, and the weight and pull can cause the racks to lean a bit towards each other.

[AnnieM]

Yes, Louise, I've been concerned about the weight and pull on the poles, even tho they are sunk into concrete 2.5 feet deep and 14" diameter. Our soil is rock out here on the Edwards Plateau, as you probably know, so the soil around the concrete won't shift at all. We actually have an old pole in the ground that my husband is putting a cam up on. We could add perching rods to that, but not sure we want to encourage the birds to land on the cameras. Will have to give this some more thought! Ya know, sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We seem to want to make things more complicated when maybe we should go for simplicity!

[Bulldog1]

I know this not what you asked but a easy way to add additional perching space to your setup is by adding plastic tomato stakes with zip ties.

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[AnnieM]

I like that idea Bulldog. Just happen to have several of those green plastic stakes in the shed. I will give that some thought. If one idea doesn't work out, we need to think of another way. Thanks for the pics!

[AnnieM]

After considering all the options and suggestions, here's what my husband came up with. I didn't think it was what I envisioned, but now that it's done, it looks great and first thing this morning there was a white winged dove sitting up there enjoying the view! Now if the martins will like it! Won't know that for another month...they are due back March 12.

[KathyF]

Annie,
We had a 16' 4x4 post that we sank into the ground and then, wanting to raise the perching station, we built it out of 2x2's and inserted dowel rods to make multiple perches. Hubby said, "they have something like 48 linear feet of perching...that's plenty".

We'll see.....

[AnnieM]

Oh wow! Ur PMs are spoiled!! We don't have many residents so hope they like this one. I put the gourds back up and filled them with nice new clean nesting material. Haven't seen a HOSP out here all winter but soon as I raised the gourds, there was one sitting on the porch the next morning. I left only one open as it is perfect angle to take a hit from the back porch. that is the next project. March 12 is their "scheduled" arrival date. I always wonder how they end up five hours north of us in Ft Worth and not a one seen in our area???

[Ron Alsop]

This is exactly why I joined this forum--I had a similiar question about a perching wire and have seen plenty of options and some very interesting ideas that I had not thought of. Thanks to all!! Ron

[AnnieM]

Ron, isn't it great? No question goes unanswered and everyone willing to share their ideas. And pictures. And how-tos. It's a fantastic resource!!