New House Setup

[toddm]

Hi, new member here and learning about these beautiful birds. I just setup a new purple martin house with 12 rooms. I'm in NJ and understand August is late, but thought by setting it up now, it possibly might be discovered by those purple martins currently flying south, and maybe this could help for next year when they arrive. Is this a good idea? If so, should I open or close the entrance holes? I left 4 holes open now and closed the rest. Thanks for any suggestions and help. Todd

[avesrun]

Hi Todd welcome to the forum. Can't hurt having the house up. What type of house did you choose to go with? Get ready for much more work involved in attracting Prognes subis but it's worth every ounce of it! Have you installed a predator guard for coons, squirrels, snakes and the likes? The only other thing I recommend at this time is year 'round relentless control of House Sparrows and Starlings through baiting, trapping, shooting, and yes killing. Watch out for native sparrows especially if you feed birds and know id of hosp compared to the numerous native sparrows. When you get your first purple Martins showing up to check out your site, the fewer pressure they experience from starlings and hosp the better. Recommend a repeating sparrow trap, one or two traps you can use inside the Martin house, and a shotgun or nicer air pellet rifle if possible to use at your site .
One other important consideration; not sure if you're rural or more urban but if bluebirds and/or tree swallows are present in your area you MUST be ready to handle their wanting to nest in the Martin house. You cannot let this happen. Place a bb house 25-35ft on each side of the Martin house. Keep your Martin doors closed in spring until the bb house (s) are committed to strongly before opening the Martin doors. Good luck and patience and persistence is key and never stop improving on your site and researching all aspects of being a purple Martin landlord.
TimG

[toddm]

Hi Tim, thank you for the quick reply. The house is on a round metal pole, I'll be sure to setup a pole guard. I do have a couple Blue bird houses already set up. I'll take the Martin house down in September. With some really great advise found on this website, that is surely to be helpful. Patience and persistence, that I'm glad I have. Thanks very much. Todd

[Dave Duit]

Hi Todd,
Tim has some great advice. Keep the entrances open for passers by on their migration south. If a martin had a bad nesting site due to predation, poor landlord care, no supplemental feeding available, etc.. that martin may abandon that site to seek out better nesting sites. Your new location will be remembered by those martins passing over. Tim did everything by the book and did his research on attracting martins to a new site and it paid off. I would suggest absorbing as much info as possible on martins over the winter and put your knowledge into practice when the martin start arriving in your area in 2016. I congratulate you for your efforts and interest in martins. This site is a great place to visit. Please feel free to visit other martin sites for info. My website and organization is at www.iamartin.org

[toddm]

Hi Dave,
Ok, I'll open the other entrances also. This winter if it's like the last two winters, will give me plenty of time to keep reading about the Martins and be ready in the spring. Thanks very much.

[diane vB]

Good luck Todd and I am with you on your first sparrow kill! It is not easy to kill a little breathing helpless bird BUT when they come in and peck holes in your eggs and your babies heads you will have No problem ! Or catch and release miles away. I had a starling kill a female blue bird that went to check out a nest box that the starling obviously had staked out. Again, good luck and develop a thick skin.