2017 Wannabe report

[Mitch Booth]

Well here we go again. I keep looking for updates from Sharon and Mary (Taxidermy Lady and Mama Bruff). There are others as well but I can't think of them at the moment. I was thinking flyin-Lowe's dad was trying to start a colony too but I could be wrong.

Anyways I currently have a nest of mallards that took to my straw nesting tube mounted above the water, 2 pair of bluebirds, 1 pair of chickadees and 6 pair of TS. This year I put all three gourd racks about 15-20 feet apart and the one pair of tree swallows on a Shepard's pole is doing a great job of keeping ALL other tree swallows off the gourd racks. I tried to implement the tree swallow emergency article here on the Forum.

Good luck everyone!

Mitch

[flyin-lowe]

Hello Mitch, my father was not trying so you've got someone else in mind..... Good to hear from you none the less.

[phldave]

I waited until first week of April to even put up my house this year, hoping to reduce the S&S pressure, that turned out to be futile, they showed up anyway. Martin activity is almost non existent. I think I did see a group of about 6 pass by a couple weeks ago.

[Okie]

Suggest that until martins show up...... eliminate like crazy. I have invested in just about every trap available. Personally I consider it a good investment. Probably get good use for years to come. That said I also have to say the sparrow pressure is not as intense as last year as I eliminated the ones that have lived at my place for years. So these are "foreigners

That said again yesterday caught 7 and so far today 3. So the foreigners are invading It will never stop until our neighbors do likewise.
But every male I eliminate, prevents the danger they pose to my PM eggs & hatchlings.

Good luck. Don't lose the faith. And eliminate on.

[Mitch Booth]

Hello Mitch, my father was not trying so you've got someone else in mind..... Good to hear from you none the less.

I think I remember when you set up a T-14 in the back of your property and ended up getting 5 pair your first year!! Man I would be bummed to have had to move and start all over again!! I'm hoping I can get a colony rolling this year!! Am I correct that you had a wooden house and got started your first year? I think you had big open fields behind your house.

Mitch

[handyman315]

Mitch,

Right there with you in the wannabe league. One visit this year, so brief that maybe I imagined it.

Have implemented the Emergency Tree Swallow article . . . at least they are beautiful to watch. She builds the elaborate nest and he comes and checks it periodically!

[LonesomeDuck]

I'm in north central Indiana. Saw our first martins this year yesterday, 1 adult male and 2 adult females. They flew around for about 5 minutes but did not land on our martin house/gourds. Last year the first martins we saw were on June 17th, so hopefully we'll get our first nesting pairs this year!

[Dave Reynolds]

Mitch --- Keep working at it... If you had nesters off and on for the last few years,,,, your doing something right... It will happen again... good luck ''

Dave

[[email protected]]

WannaBe report from Massachusetts. I put up my Troyer Horizontal last year and had one set of 3/4 PM visitors. I've had the morning songs going every morning and have the Decoys up as well. So far I've seen nothing.There is a Super Colony about 5/6/7 Miles away. Also a few of colonies within 20 miles.

Keeping my fingers crossed. It has been a cold and wet Spring here and March was 3 degrees colder than February and January!! I'm a new guy so all I can do is report on what I've seen.

John

[taxidermy lady]

Good to hear from you Mitch! I'm just laying low and waiting! I've had visitors but nothing has stayed like always! Hoping things pick up soon! A rainy week for us is coming! And rain all weekend they say! Good luck!!!

[jerickey]

I guess I've been lucky. I built 2 wood Martin houses and have 1 pair nesting. I had a few that stayed around for about a week, singles, then left. This is my first year and know very little but am learning. I hope more birds show up but I think it's getting late. I'm in N.E. Arkansas.

[greenporter]

Hi fellow Wannabes. I am on eastern Long Island, NY where scout reports from as close at 15 miles from here started coming in three weeks ago but I have yet to sight a single PM. I installed a 12-unit Trio a neighbor gave me in the summer of 2012(?), which got instant attention and we have had a full house from 2013 on. 2015 was my first full time Spring here and I recorded PMs the first week of May in both 2015 & 2016. I have expanded this year to:

- a 2nd Trio (both on an MPP with 4 horizontal Troyer Gourds) but still just 12 Trio compartments after enlarging to 6"x12"
- plus a 24 compartment Gemini made up of a combination of horizontal and vertical Troyer gourds

So a better than three-fold compartment increase. I cannot fathom why I never see them before May but each year I am more anxious than the previous. The prospect of no PMs this year is enough to drive me to drink (or worse: smoking which I quit 5 years ago). I hate this waiting and this feeling of helplessness. I have taken to playing the PM dawn song out the window -- my wife thinks I am at the very least possessed and possibly a little batty. So be it. Speaking of "batty", I think I will put up a bat house this year too!

Jim

[Mitch Booth]

Hi fellow Wannabes. I am on eastern Long Island, NY where scout reports from as close at 15 miles from here started coming in three weeks ago but I have yet to sight a single PM. I installed a 12-unit Trio a neighbor gave me in the summer of 2012(?), which got instant attention and we have had a full house from 2013 on. 2015 was my first full time Spring here and I recorded PMs the first week of May in both 2015 & 2016. I have expanded this year to:

- a 2nd Trio (both on an MPP with 4 horizontal Troyer Gourds) but still just 12 Trio compartments after enlarging to 6"x12"
- plus a 24 compartment Gemini made up of a combination of horizontal and vertical Troyer gourds

So a better than three-fold compartment increase. I cannot fathom why I never see them before May but each year I am more anxious than the previous. The prospect of no PMs this year is enough to drive me to drink (or worse: smoking which I quit 5 years ago). I hate this waiting and this feeling of helplessness. I have taken to playing the PM dawn song out the window -- my wife thinks I am at the very least possessed and possibly a little batty. So be it. Speaking of "batty", I think I will put up a bat house this year too!

Jim

Jim it sounds like you are past the Wannabe stage with "I installed a 12-unit Trio a neighbor gave me in the summer of 2012(?), which got instant attention and we have had a full house from 2013 on." How many pair did you have last year that successfully fledged young?

Mitch

[BillieJR]

I'm new here and definitely a wannabe. I'm located in the country on 2+ acres near Monroe, WI. We are about 10 miles north of the Illinois border and about 40 miles east of the Iowa border. I have had purple martins off and on for the past 32 years. Our neighbor across the road had them when we moved here 32 years ago, and I had wanted them so we put up a wooden house, with no success at all. Where we lived previously, there was a homemade wooden martin house that had been there for years by the previous owners, but the sparrows had it stuffed so badly with their nests - the house was on a pole that I had to use a ladder to get to and it was basically a hopeless cause to get martins, thanks to the sparrows. Anyways we finally took the new wooden one down and put up a 12 room aluminum. We really got with the times and actually put it on a pole with a rope/pulley. Basically, we had started out knowing nothing other than I wanted purple martins and knew we needed a house to get them but that was about it. I started trying to educate myself by subscribing to the Nature Society monthly mailing and bought a book that was full of great information. This was long before internet was an option for learning and finding info to help. We are so lucky, now, to have the internet. I wish I had it back 32 years ago and then maybe I could have done a better job at being a landlord. As I said, we have had them off and on but now, after knowing more, I don't know if maybe owls scared them off or what. I guess we'll never know for sure. I know the neighbors finally had no more either. I think the last time we had them was 5 years ago. Every year I get ready for them and watch the skies and pray and hope and wish and keep my fingers crossed - and every year I'm disappointed again. I've trapped countless sparrows. We dont' have too much starling trouble, thankfully. Sparrows seem to be never ending. Our neighbor has since taken his house down, due to too many trees that have taken away their flyways. He gave us his house because we have hardly any trees. We have had 3 12 compartment aluminum houses for many many years. Last year we had to take one down....well, the wind took it down when it broke the pole, which pretty much destroyed the house when it came down. A guy we've known for ages had been telling me for a couple years that he had finally gotten martins after putting up some gourds. He kept telling me we should come over to see them - we never got there until last year and OMG! The show was spectacular! He had put up about 55 super gourds (plus a couple of aluminum houses that he had had but no luck with) and had so many purple martins we couldn't count. I know he had told us about how many he had but I don't recall - I was just in awe of it all. I think most of his gourds were occupied. We went back one more time to see them as the season was drawing to a close and about a week or so later, they were gone south. This year he has about 20 so far, as of lastnight - the first coming in on April 6th. They put up a few more new gourds this year. He said they are slower coming in this year than they have been in prior years so he, too, is noticing the lateness of them. He lives about 9 miles straight south from us, about a mile from the Illinois border but still in Wisconsin. Because he had such huge success with his gourds I have decided to try that this year, too. So far I have not even seen a purple martin but I'm still hopeful. I do have a pair of TS that are dreaming of moving in to the gourds, tho. I have other plans and hope they will move on down the road or they are even welcome to use one of our bluebird boxes. We really do not have any PM colonies near us. We did have one about a mile over the hill, as the crow flies, but the guy who lived there became elderly and sold their farmette and the new owners did not take care of his three houses so they've been taken over by sparrows. I have another neighbor about a mile the other direction (as the crow flies) that has a rack with about 4 gourds on it but I never see any martins there. That's my story, for the most part. I've been successful but currently not. I hope my luck changes this year. I'm sorry this is so long - I thought it would be good to start at the beginning to give you a good picture of my experiences. I enjoy reading everyone's posts and getting more educated every day. I thought I had been a really good landlord but I apparently failed so I am still learning. Good luck to you all!

[greenporter]

Hi fellow Wannabes. I am on eastern Long Island, NY where scout reports from as close at 15 miles from here started coming in three weeks ago but I have yet to sight a single PM. I installed a 12-unit Trio a neighbor gave me in the summer of 2012(?), which got instant attention and we have had a full house from 2013 on. 2015 was my first full time Spring here and I recorded PMs the first week of May in both 2015 & 2016. I have expanded this year to:

- a 2nd Trio (both on an MPP with 4 horizontal Troyer Gourds) but still just 12 Trio compartments after enlarging to 6"x12"
- plus a 24 compartment Gemini made up of a combination of horizontal and vertical Troyer gourds

So a better than three-fold compartment increase. I cannot fathom why I never see them before May but each year I am more anxious than the previous. The prospect of no PMs this year is enough to drive me to drink (or worse: smoking which I quit 5 years ago). I hate this waiting and this feeling of helplessness. I have taken to playing the PM dawn song out the window -- my wife thinks I am at the very least possessed and possibly a little batty. So be it. Speaking of "batty", I think I will put up a bat house this year too!

Jim

Jim it sounds like you are past the Wannabe stage with "I installed a 12-unit Trio a neighbor gave me in the summer of 2012(?), which got instant attention and we have had a full house from 2013 on." How many pair did you have last year that successfully fledged young?

Mitch

Hi Mitch, I guess that is true, I just feel like a Wannabe every year when they are late.

[Thais G]

Hi All,
I am also still here and trying again! I am in Stamford, CT and the two active colonies next to me (1 mile away) have not see on martin yet!! They are indeed very late! Usually these colonies get at least a few by the first week of April!

My main site (and highest hopes) is at my son's school - I really, really want it to be successful because I am an environmental education volunteer and I have a whole program ready to go!!! I just need martins!

However, we do have hawks around... all the time...

I have two houses about 100' feet from one another, so I hope the martins will stay even if the hawk is around one of them. They have visited many times last year, but I have not seen any at all this year...

I trap sparrows, but it is a bit tricky being at the elementary school.

Good luck to all!
Thais

[taxidermy lady]

Jim this waiting thing is obnoxious! I actually took up sitting to much! Lol I sit and wait for the martins!

[4th Gen Martin Fan]

Mitch,
Mary (Mama Bruff) had to quit. She needs to concentrate on her health.
She gave all of her housing to a nearby neighbor. As all purple martin landlords know, this can be a stressful hobby.
I miss Mary's articulate and passionate posts.

[Okie]

Mark so sad to hear. I was wondering about her. Here's hoping for better health. If you read this Mary. We miss you and wish you the best.

[taxidermy lady]

Yes it is a hobby that you have no control over! You can only do so much then it's up to them!
If I didn't have all you good folks Encouragement my enthusiasm would be sunk!
I tell myself their just birds! Seems to make it all better! Lol