Wish me luck

[G Saner]

After moving to our retirement town, I am trying to establish martin colonies in my new hometown for 2016. This will be my fourth town to host a colony after having martins in Fort Worth, The Colony and Carrollton in North Texas. I have a modified Trio and two excluder gourds in our backyard. I also have 12 gourds each at two Assisted Living Centers.

One of centers is perfectly open and only 150 yards from the Guadalupe River. That one is on land my grandparents owned for decades. The other center has a fairly good site near a creek. My grandmother and uncle both lived there at one time. The residents are excited at both centers and looking forward to watching the martins.

[Stephen Cruse]

Good luck my friend! I am sure you will have some success!

[Anthony Neira]

Great Idea ! Best of luck to you!

[Dave Reynolds]

G Saner --- Good luck at your new site,,,, it sounds like it will be a great place for Martins... I wish you all the luck in the world...

Dave

[MichaelH]

That's great will be very therapeutic for the residents good luck and hope you get all the martins you deserve at all your sites.
Mick

[taxidermy lady]

I wish you the best of luck!!

[Jose Rodriguez]

That's awesome Saner! Sounds like a winning plan for everyone! Best of Luck!

[G Saner]

Here are my results for 2016. I did not attract martins in my backyard Trio nor at one of the Assisted Living centers. However at the center on the Guadalupe River, 4 pair nested raising 13 young. These gourds also had 2-3 bachelor SY males that stayed for two months. It took until late March for a ASY pair to choose the gourds. All the other martins were SY birds. The center residents loved the martins and my talks about them. The other center did have a young male for about one week but he moved on when he couldn't attract a mate.

Since the gourds on the river will have returning martins next year, I feel very good about them being nearly full in 2017. The site is perfect and wide open. When the martins return to the gourds, they only fly a few feet above the ground then swoop up and under the owl guards. Fun to watch and a lot different approach from my prior suburban colonies.

After discussing with people in my new town and talking to my mentees, I find it is not easy to start a colony here. There are martin colonies but the young martins tend to prefer established colonies. The key is attracting that first pair. I think the drought a few years ago really took a hit on martin fledging rates. However, the past two years have had good spring rains and martins raised a lot of babies. I'll keep trying in my backyard and at the other Assisted Living center.

Gary

[PhillipFrazier]

Many best wishes - great to hear of all you are doing...

[jpearson]

You've had a lot of luck establishing colonies. I just left my thriving colony with 18 pairs to move into a new house about 4 miles away. It took me two years to get birds the first time when I knew nothing. I'm going to play the dawnsong in the morning and put out 10 decoys to try and show an active colony. Anything else you can think of that I should do? I live in Colleyville.

[G Saner]

j

The number one consideration to attracting martins is having a good open site. If needed and possible, remove any trees or shrubs that would improve the openness. Of the three sites I started this year, only the perfect one had martins.

Decoys and dawn song are a good idea. I use both in my backyard but still could not attract martins. The only time I saw martins was while playing the dawn song. It attracts the young birds but that doesn't mean they will stay. I also recommend adding gourds if you have only a house. Again, decoys, dawn song and both kinds of housing help but an open site is the most important.

You live in a good area for martins and have already been a landlord so I am certain you will be successful.