question

jerickey · Mon Mar 27, 2017 4:46 pm

How long should you play the morning song each day?

Archer · Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:42 pm

How long do you let your advertising run in the paper, Till you get martins! Seriously though, when I was in your position, I let it run all day(I was away at work so didn't have to listen to it.) It will attract martins anytime they hear it.

jerickey · Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:58 pm

Thank you, I have been, but I didn't know. I get birds but they come and go.

Archer · Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:26 pm

That's a good sign, at least they know you are on the map.. I kept playing mine till I saw them to start bringing nesting material into the house.

Courtney-NC · Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:57 pm

I spent 9 years trying to attract martins to my housing at my home site before I finally succeeded. It's recommended to play it (only) early in the morning (I think 4am-7am), but I have had the most luck playing it from 6:30am-10:30am. That seems to be 'visiting time' for martins. I tried playing it other times of day but it was ignored.
If a martin gets serious about your site, it will also stop by at other times of day, without the dawnsong. You can try switching to Daytime Chatter later in the day.
Watch out for hawks, though.... sometimes they are attracted to incessant dawnsong playing.

There are other things you can do to attract them besides using dawnsong. You can put up a decoy or two, add prenests with pine straw and dried oak leaves, smear mud around the entrances, and put a mirror on the back wall of a compartment or gourd so that if a martin peers in, it will see another martin. If you are using decoys and the visiting martins seem spooked by them (won't land or divebomb them), take the decoys off.

Good luck, there's still plenty of time in the season.

Whippy · Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:17 am

I've been playing the dawn song in the mornings before I leave for work. When I get home, if it's still day light but not real late, I will turn it on again. On the weekends I play it in the morning until about 10 or 11 then play it again later in the afternoon between 3 and 5pm. Every time I turn it on I get interest. There is always birds in my airspace at different heights with the occasional close fly by and the occasional landing.

I've flirted with decoys but have never had a martin come in with a decoy on the rack. When I take them down, I get visitors.

I also get a few visits from hawks when I play the song. I've seen Martins chase them off and I've seen a hawk go after a dove in a neighboring tree. The Dawn Song does create a lot of activity.

Coolwhips.