We would like to hear (or rather, read) your thoughts.

[TheSmiths]

Hello. I've been a visitor for a few years but haven't posted until today. We've had a martin box for 9 years -- it came with the property -- but it's never been occupied. We moved it further from the tree line last year but still haven't had an occupant. We were planning to add a few gourds but I'm afraid our property may not be suitable for Martins. I am posting some pics and would like to get others' opinions.

Note: Last year we installed a 4' wooden fence and a neighbor cleared over an acre woods from behind our house. The changes appear to have resulted in us losing our breeding pairs of bluebirds and house wrens. Very sad as they had been using our boxes for 7 or 8 years. We don't know what effect, if any, the changes will have on our martin housing potential.

[John Miller]

Location in last photo looks great to me. Tree line is second photo is a little worrisome but as you are open on three sides, would think okay. Still, if you have not had martins, could move the housing toward the street some.

Add a couple of gourds maybe for variety.

As much as I love martin "houses," more and more I advise new folks to start with a gourd rack -- at least six big gourds. Seems to me that martins may be able to pick them out better as they fly over from all the urban clutter. And they absolutely can see them if the gourd rack, and maybe the house, is out in an open yard. A house and two gourds should work too.

John M

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

The tall trees are too close, but the shorter apple trees are probably not a problem. I agree with John, can you move it toward the street to get a more open area.

[William A]

OK, I am no expert by any means but let me tell you that I see several landlords every day that have the worst possible locations as far as I am concerned and always have birds. One guy has a gourd rack behind his fence with 50 ft pecan trees in the back of the gourds with about 12 feet separation. The only way the martins have to leave is over a small hospital parking lot. I also know of another landlord that has 72 gourds surrounded by big oak trees that about 30 feet behind and maybe 70 feet in front. The birds do not have much room to circle in low so they circle overhead and dive down to the gourds and they come every year with plenty of SY's that follow. Compared to these places, your place should be fine. I will echo what someone said above about the gourds. In my opinion, gourds draw the birds initially and then may move to the houses. That is what happened to mine. Good Luck

[John Miller]

"MO thoughts:" If this is the Trio telescoping pole, it will bend in a severe storm when fully extended. I keep a couple of these -- for about last 50 years -- partially lowered to about 12 feet by marking the sections with red paint and keeping each section lowered 1.5 feet (approx.).

The guard doesn't have to be that high...top can be four feet above the ground and will stop a raccoon, so suggest place top just below the lower clamping lever and then add snake netting above the guard, with a bungee, when you get martins.

Couple of natural gourds would be least weight among gourds. Could order two of the naturals pre-done with round holes from the PMCA "today" - slight starling risk but starling season winds down in late May-early June in Kentucky -- and this winter absolutely put SREH tunnels and access ports on the gourds. Wire gourds to the corners of the house with no. 10 solid strand copper wire and needle nose pliers, or buy the hanger attachment for poles. Your floors on this house would have to be reinforced some to hold heavier plastic gourds.

John

[avesrun]

I'm not a veteran landlord; agree with all the above and have one question:
do you have any known martin colonies nearby? if so, how close? I will advise patience if you live in a martin deficit area like I do with no known colonies within 20 miles or more. good luck.
tim

[DAVE]

I agree with Emil and John. However I do have a comment about the size of the compartments in your house. For years a friend of mine had a problem with getting more than a couple pair of SY's. ASY's would come and look but never stayed. Last year before Martin season I talked him into letting me expand the size of the compartments and low and behold he filled all compartments with all ASYs. This year is the same. With so many folks using larger Gourds and enlarging their houses the adults will use the larger units.
Good Luck Dave

[DornCounty]

are you playing dawnsong CD?

[TheSmiths]

Thanks for all of the quick responses.

Tree line is second photo is a little worrisome but as you are open on three sides, would think okay. Still, if you have not had martins, could move the housing toward the street some.

I agree with John, can you move it toward the street to get a more open area.

Yeah, we figured the large oaks could be a/the problem and had wondered about moving it further away. If we move the martin house though, our roof will block it. Do you think that would still be a better option?

Add a couple of gourds maybe for variety.

I will echo what someone said above about the gourds. In my opinion, gourds draw the birds initially and then may move to the houses.

We were planning to put add a few gourds but wanted to make sure our area was suitable before investing. My FIL lives ~16 miles from us and has nothing but gourds and the martins seem to love them.

OK, I am no expert by any means but let me tell you that I see several landlords every day that have the worst possible locations as far as I am concerned and always have birds. Compared to these places, your place should be fine.

That gives me some hope.

"MO thoughts:" If this is the Trio telescoping pole, it will bend in a severe storm when fully extended.

It is a two-piece telescoping steel pole that my FIL had cut at a local steel company. We'd like to outfit it with a pulley-system to make it easier to get into but are not sure how to do it.

The guard doesn't have to be that high...

The current guard is 2' long and my spouse is planning to replace it with a 5' long guard. The longer guard would block the area that telescopes so he put it higher.

Couple of natural gourds would be least weight among gourds. Your floors on this house would have to be reinforced some to hold heavier plastic gourds.

Thanks. I hadn't thought about the plastic gourds being to heavy.

Do you have any known martin colonies nearby? I will advise patience if you live in a martin deficit area like I do with no known colonies within 20 miles or more. good luck.
tim

My FIL's colony at ~16 miles out is the closest we're aware of.

With so many folks using larger Gourds and enlarging their houses the adults will use the larger units.

I'll have to take a look at the compartments again. I can't remember their size atm. They aren't the tiniest I've seen but they're not exactly spacious.

are you playing dawnsong CD?

Nope.

[John Miller]

A house roofline close to martin housing is not ideal; it can shield an approaching hawk. But many martin houses are in back yards, and martins in my observation will more often colonize martin housing adjacent to a human building than housing located by a solid line of trees. They may feel safer from owls. I'd consider moving the martin house left (looking at diagram) to the opposite corner of your house, or even beyond to have greater flyways.

You can reinforce the floors of Trio housing. I'd buy flat bar aluminum from a home center and run two strips front to back near edge to stiffen the floor, especially if you want to attach some brackets (to the flat bar) to hold heavier plastic gourds. The PMCA does have a gourd bracket that attaches right to a pole below the house and that seems like should work well for houses that don't slide down the pole (pole through the house).


John M

[TheSmiths]

Hello again. Well, last year we added a couple of gourds but there were still no takers. This year I've been playing the Dawn Song CD each morning from 4am to 6am but there's been nary a martin in sight. *sigh*. The spouse wants to leave the setup where it is for one more year. In the meantime, I'll be enlarging the rooms in the house and adding three large gourds with tunnels using the "create-a-rack" I ordered. I also ordered the daytime chatter cd.


Meanwhile, you'd think the martins would take this as a good sign...

[DebA]

Hello! I agree with the spouse and give it another year. The CD's are helpful IMO. 16 miles away while isn't 3 miles is not that far away for a martin. Their SY's will be looking for a home. I am a BIG believer in BIG compartments. Giving room for babies to grow in hot summers and extra protection from a predator reaching their feet in (owls) to drag them out. Anyway, good luck to you this year!
Deb

[wastrox]

I appreciate your original post and all the replies as I am in a similar situation. I'm told the CDs can be a game changer. Good luck!

[terriergal]

This year I've been playing the Dawn Song CD each morning from 4am to 6am but there's been nary a martin in sight. *sigh*.

I play it all day. Many times they come by during the daytime for me.

I also have a couple of decoys. Moving them around every couple days can help too although I haven't done that for a few years since I had occupants and they were sticking around. I have one white and two black decoys but I lost one of the black ones somewhere in my garage.

[TheSmiths]

Well, we're back. In 2015 we drilled through the house so it has 6 spacious rooms rather than 12 small ones. The Starlings absolutely LOVED the house after the room enlargements so we replaced the round entrance holes with crescent SREH. We also attached an "add-a-rack" below the house from which we hung three different gourds and added two PM decoys. There was a Sansa MP3 player with portable speaker in a large ziplock bag hung from the martin pole. We used it to play the Dawn Song throughout the day. Unfortunately, we never saw a single Martin.

This year we've been playing Dawn Song for a day or two then we switch to Daytime Chatter for a day or two. (They play the entire day). Still, we haven't seen a single Martin.

I'm going to post some more photos to show you what our area looks like and what our sad little setup looks like.There are plenty of ponds, tributaries from the Clarks River (which is very close by), and numerous creeks and drainage areas nearby. We have loads of dragonflies in our yard during the Summer and Fall. Were I a Martin I might think this would be a nice place to settle down, but apparently I'm missing something.

In the aerial view — yellow stars are ponds; red star is my home; the field area behind my home is now used to grow feed corn. (Never had problems with Starlings or HS until the woods were cut down and the corn planted).

[TheSmiths]

Edit: Made correction to previous post but could not delete this one.

[TheSmiths]

The spouse and I are trying to decide whether we should add more gourds or move the pole towards the road. We're uncertain about moving it toward the road due to the roof line, the three tall Elms that run parallel to the road, and "curbside appeal" (aka the neighbors might not appreciate it since it would basically be in our front yard if we moved it).

I've seen a juvenile Bald Eagle perched in our neighbors tree and my spouse has seen a hawk or two hanging around. Too bad neither made a snack of the House Sparrow that started building a nest in one of the gourds today. Looks like we may have to participate in the Sparrow Swap program again this year. (Here is a link if any nest box monitors are interested in participating -- https://scistarter.com/project/1380-Sparrow-Swap ).

Do Purple Martins shy away from entrance holes that have fishing line tacked around them? How about "Sparrow Spookers" or halos?

On the positive side, there are N. Mockingbirds, E. Bluebirds, and Tufted Titmice nesting on the property atm.

[Archer]

I think you are in a tough spot to attract martins. Personally I would go with moving the housing closer to the road. You could install a ground sleeve so that you could take down the house after the season ends and put it up again in the spring. I would not invest more money into your housing till you attract some martins. Your best investment at this time would be a chain saw. Its a tough choice for many, trees or martins, each has to decide what is right for themselves.

[TheSmiths]

Well, we're not ready to give up. We are adding a rack & pulley system and a few more gourds. When the spouse has healed from surgery we will move the pole towards the road.

The strange thing — which is also what makes me hesitant about continuing — is that neither my spouse nor myself have ever HEARD, let alone SEEN, a purple martin in this area. Not one. Swifts, Barn Swallows, just about any bird you can think of, but not a single Martin. You'd think we'd have at least heard or seen one flying by.

Mr Miller. Any additional thoughts are welcome? Should we call it quits?

[~Ray~Gingerich]

No, don't give up! The picture showing the yellow house on right side of photo looks fine. Maybe leave it where it is and add a large gourd rack towards the street. A large rack with white gourds would make your site more visible from the air and martins will come to investigate. Another option is to install a large gourd rack with angle iron arms, modify so the trio house will fit on it along with gourds. I have a super24 modified to accept 2 trio houses, it's been a martin favorite here.