Interesting observation

[Billy Stephens]

The last few days, I have had four Martins spending the night in only one of my two racks. My racks that have twelve gourds each, were equally occupied last year, nearly full. I realize that most people place their gourd racks close to each other, But, after I finally had success establishing a small colony in my first rack, I decided to add a second, but I placed it about 60 yards away from my first one, only to bring the Martins to a closer location where I could see, and enjoy them more. It seemed that, some always preferred one over the other, and males would often try to coerce the females to the other rack. There was , it seemed, a competition between the two. Anyway, the second rack was placed between my house and my shop, and I used a taller pole because of the height of my shop and it was closer to tall trees. Up until today, the four Martins that I had were spending the night in the taller rack near my shop. But tonight, I had three new arrivals, for a total of seven, and they all swept down to roost in my other rack. None roosted in the gourd rack that they had been for the last week or so. I guess it is true that the males will pick the site, but the females will pick the housing within the site. Anyone else have a similar occurrence? or comments?