How long do they try

[kim w.]

The past two years I've have had a sy male show up. Each time in the beginning they bring in a lot of ladies for a look but the girls don't stay. Then after around 10 days the sym leaves too. They just seem to quit trying. Is this normal?

[Mhoover]

That is normal. They are communal nesters and if a male is unable to attract a mate at a location then they will look for an existing colony where they will have a better chance of finding a mate. My first SY male stayed around for almost three weeks before he gave up and left.
A SY pair has not established site fidelity yet as the adult martins have.

[kim w.]

I feel my location is reasonable. I have a t-10 with 2 natural and 2 S n K vertical gourds underneath. Gourd rack with 4 Troyer horizontal gourds and an old heath house with round holes and expanded compartments. No starlings and 1 pair hs that i'm dealing with. Playing dawn song. Any thing else I can do to entice the females to stay?

[Mhoover]

You might try making things a little dirty as if some of the cavities had been used previously. A little mud spread around the entrance holes as if martins left it behind when they passed through the entrances could help.
Taxidermy Lady used a fake nest in one of her cavities in order to make the visiting martins think that there were already martins nesting there worked for her. She detailed what she did in one of the other posts on the forum.
Prenests made of pine straw or plain straw also can be of benefit. The visiting martins might assume that other martins were already constructing nests in the cavities.
Playing the Dawnsong or Daytime Chatter CDs can also help to get them interested. I played the Dawnsong CD of a morning and kept a watch so that I could shut it off when a visitor got ready to land. That piques their curiosity and they try to find the cavity where the martin sound was coming from. I have had them spend a few minutes checking out all of my cavities looking for the martins that were dawnsinging. I was hoping that they would find a cavity that they would like enough to stay. I did get some martins to take a good look at the house and gourds that I offered but none stayed at the time although it might have helped when my founding ASYM showed up one morning with four other martins. I had given up playing anything that year figuring that it was going to be a bust as had the other years that I tried to attract a founding pair.
There was no special recipe for me starting my colony. Some other landlords might be able to furnish you information on what they did to start their colony that can work for you.

[handyman315]

You might try making things a little dirty as if some of the cavities had been used previously. A little mud spread around the entrance holes as if martins left it behind when they passed through the entrances could help . . . . Some other landlords might be able to furnish you information on what they did to start their colony that can work for you.

Seems awfully good advice from Mhoover, your fellow Hoosier. Got Martins my fourth year of trying, and admittedly, this was my first year slathering some mud in and on my housing, and also for using dry pine needles. Having said that, should quickly add that my anchor ASY-M established this colony more than I did. So, sometimes Nature just needs a little time to take its course, but we humans can certainly help in the meantime.

Hang in there. This season seemed a little slow to get going, probably due to some nasty cold weather, particularly in the SE, but now that it is underway, there are some great reports from all over. Yes, I know, things look a little brighter with Martins all over the place in my back yard, but my comments are meant to be realistic also.

It's not too late to get a nesting pair this year. Good luck!

[kim w.]

Thanks for the comments Mhoover and handyman315.

[flyin-lowe]

My first colony was started by a lone SY male. He brought in some nest material into a cavity and tried all summer and never attracted a mate. He stayed the entire season and left around the end of July. The next spring he came back and went straight to the same cavity. He atrracted a female and the 4 more pair. At my new location I have bad some SY males stay but not near as long as the first one.

[Robbi]

Newbie in South Florida. Got a late start (mid May)but figured I'd try. The first morning after putting up the house I had 8 Martins flying around! They stayed about an hour and came back for 3 or 4 days, then disappeared. So then I got the dawn song, played it from 4-6 am, and nothing. I started letting it play through the day, and the Martins were back, stayed awhile, left and came back, for etc for a couple hours. Then gone again. I about gave up, then yesterday they were back again for a short visit. So what now? Is it too late? I have decoys and pine straw in place. I know June is pushing the season.

[handyman315]

Newbie in South Florida. Got a late start (mid May)but figured I'd try. The first morning after putting up the house I had 8 Martins flying around! They stayed about an hour and came back for 3 or 4 days, then disappeared. So then I got the dawn song, played it from 4-6 am, and nothing. I started letting it play through the day, and the Martins were back, stayed awhile, left and came back, for etc for a couple hours. Then gone again. I about gave up, then yesterday they were back again for a short visit. So what now? Is it too late? I have decoys and pine straw in place. I know June is pushing the season.

"Trying" is pretty much how several of us got started, and I applaud your efforts. Join in, few things will be as rewarding, with so much joy of anticipation. Sounds like you are off to a great start, and with that South Florida location you've got much more going for you than many of us. A newbie landlord myself, I'll leave the season question to the pros, but my instinct tells me PMs could nest quite late in the season there in Florida, and still have plenty of time to catch that late "flight" to Brazil when it comes rumbling thru. A couple years ago watched PMs on the coast of Louisiana and wanted to pack some in my trunk - what a sight! Grab some of those Southern birds!

The senior PCMA members talk in terms of taking - on average - 3 to 5 years to start a new colony, and although I fall directly into that "average", they would hasten to add that it can happen the first year . . . but with some landlords waiting 10 - 15 years . . . one legend has a 30-year wait with no Martins.

What do newbies do to get PMs? Well, I are one, and most of all I read this Forum and everything I could find online. First and foremost, I had to get my problems under control: Tree Swallows and House Sparrows . . . and although I thought I knew what to do, it took a couple years to perfect it.

Cut to the chase:

First year I had one apartment style house, lotsa PM visitors - virtually all just "moteling" on the way to somewhere else. None showed ANY interest in staying. Houses up early, all fully open, stayed busy yanking out HOSP nests, all a mistake in method. Coping with the Tree Swallows had not even quite registered with me. My expectations were unreasonable, i.e., the "sky did not darken with approaching Martins".

Second year I installed a gourd rack, that'll do it! I just need nicer housing! Great thinking for humans, means virtually nothing to Martins. Now knew HOW to solve my TRES problem, but implemented the whole plan poorly despite successfully transplanting the TRES from the gourd rack to their own shepherd hook rack at the back of my property. PMs chased mightily by TRES. Put all housing up a little later, but still opened all immediately. HOSP less of a problem, they had already started nesting elsewhere. PM interest? "Hey, look! Human has more EMPTY housing, let's go to Martinville". Virtually no PM showed any serious interest after they figured out where Dawnsong and Daytime Chatter were coming from. My expectations were coming in line, e.g., "two pair would be nice".

Third Year I modified the gourd rack . . . that'll do it, it needs tinkering! Again probably meant squat to the PMs, but it kept me busy and from getting more discouraged. Carefully re-did the TRES plan - BUT GOT THE DISTANCE PART WRONG - it's gotta be done RIGHT, SYs are just too easily intimidated by those aggressive little green and white Mig fighters.

Late in my third season a SY-M began to hang around - a lot . . . we bonded, he clearly liked this stupid ole human, put he couldn't find a mate despite some really good ole college tries and my cheerleading. He'd bring females in - sometimes sleek looking ASY-Fs EVEN! None stayed. But clearly my SY-M was spending some nights in my gourds, and when senior PMCA Forum members confirmed over the winter that my guy "Spot" had probably "claimed" my site as his EVEN THOUGH he couldn't find a mate, I had my PLAN! I had to get Spot back in 2017 - as an ASY-M.

Get it right this year! October meant gather a box of clean pine needles, make mental notes to slap some mud on my housing, and most of all resist the urge to fling those houses open first sunny spring day. My expectations had taken care of themselves: Get Spot and one female to claim my site; my life will be complete.

Fourth year started just as planned, even aggressively went after my HOSP with a scoped Benjamin .177 air rifle that I'd had all my adult life - it's deadly accurate. Hardly see a HOSP anymore. Put up housing AFTER scouts reported in the area - BUT WITH ALL HOUSING CLOSED!

STILL I managed to screw up the TRES part, getting the distance wrong and allowing the little snits to chase off the very FEW SUBBIE PMs that showed up early. Dang it! Went back to reading PMCA . . . measure the distance from the gourd rack PRECISELY - moved it - TWICE no less, and mostly it worked, the TRES were less aggressive - not that it was going to matter much . . . a new sheriff was coming to town.

Spot had arrived BY HIMSELF May 31, 2016, my hopes were pinned on that one tiny bird and his successful round trip to South America. He actually arrived May 20, 2017 and despite "knowing" I'd recognize him I did not . . . not immediately, mostly because he arrived with TWO dandy females and a real swagger in his step. First order of business? He stomped the TRES' butts. After one particularly vicious thumping they never offered any serious resistance again.

The other parts of my plan? Yep, the pine needles had gone in, the mud had been slathered, Dawnsong continued to play, housing stayed closed until Spot (now JB for "Jet Black) arrived and then only opened more housing in stages - it seemed to make more arriving PMs even more desirous to move into this new, now jabbering, community.

Final analysis: My efforts or Mother Nature? Obviously some of mine, but this colony was started by JB, not me.

Expectations: My realistic expectations have been exceeded many times now in this fourth year, yet I fear something could still change all the good luck. Holding my breath!

Best of luck with your South Florida colony startup. My comments were long-winded, but maybe there is something there that might be of help.

[barbiejoe]

Mhoover:
June 6, 2017
In the last 6 days I have had two new batches of eggs laid in two nests. So they are still arriving and beginning to nest. I have 3 to go and then will have 12. One doesn't have any new stuff in it, and two have nests and green leaves. May be a second nest built by a pair nesting in one of my other gourds, but a new couple might use it. Keep on keeping on. This is my 3rd year of actually having PM's and I waited 3 or 4 to get them to come. They came the year I gave up and decided to let any "good" bird nest in the gourds.
barbiejoe

[barbiejoe]

Mhoover:
June 6, 2017
In the last 6 days I have had two new batches of eggs laid in two nests. So they are still arriving and beginning to nest. I have 3 to go and then will have 12. One doesn't have any new stuff in it, and two have nests and green leaves. May be a second nest built by a pair nesting in one of my other gourds, but a new couple might use it. Keep on keeping on. This is my 3rd year of actually having PM's and I waited 3 or 4 to get them to come. They came the year I gave up and decided to let any "good" bird nest in the gourds.
barbiejoe

[kim w.]

Trying it again only this time with a sub female. Been here two days but no mate yet.