New Martin keeper (decoy advice)

hmouch12 · Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:56 pm

Looking for a little advice on attracting some Martins. Last year I had a S&K barn house and had quite a few visitors but none nested. This year I added some BO-9 gourds to that pole and another house that my grandpa gave me and asked me to refurbish. I put 6 decoys on the houses but my question is, if I see martins, do I take the decoys down or leave them up? Thanks for the advice!

Hunter
South Louisiana

hmouch12 · Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:57 pm

Also is the decoy arrangement critical?

rrmartins · Sun Jan 20, 2019 3:22 pm

I would just use a couple of them, after you see visitors, you can take them down. Good luck!!

C.C.Martins · Sun Jan 20, 2019 5:28 pm

Good luck! Visitors are a good sign and adding more choices for them is great. I trust you have expanded the rooms for them?
Rrmartins suggestion is a good one, once they arrive take them down...some folks keep them up so hawks attack them but the martins may not accept them and go on the defensive.
Use what you can to make your site martin friendly, remove tree limbs, expand cavities, put mud at the entrances to make them look used.
Your gourd addition is a good start.
Hope you get them to stay, let us know!
Tom

James Strickland FL · Sun Jan 20, 2019 5:46 pm

I would put the decoys on a pole near your housing so that one hawks will go to them and it will give your martins time to fly away. Second I have found that Martin get nervous with decoys sitting on there future housing and will not land .

hmouch12 · Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:30 pm

Thanks for the info Tom! The aluminum house that I got from my grandpa has 6x9 compartments but the s&k barn only has 6x6. Maybe next year I can try to customize the apartments to make them bigger! I’ll keep everyone in the loop, I’m ready to see some birds!

gussiemike · Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:25 pm

Hi, I have found that with decoys and playing the dawn song cd it helps with attracting more P Martins. My birds don't seem to mind the decoys they even perch on them. As for hawks they are fooled often and hit on the decoys. Sure glad I have mine and I leave them up all season.

Wildriver · Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:11 am

hmouch12 wrote: ↑
Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:56 pm
Looking for a little advice on attracting some Martins. Last year I had a S&K barn house and had quite a few visitors but none nested. This year I added some BO-9 gourds to that pole and another house that my grandpa gave me and asked me to refurbish. I put 6 decoys on the houses but my question is, if I see martins, do I take the decoys down or leave them up? Thanks for the advice!

Hunter
South Louisiana

I had a real issue with cooper's hawks waiting, then attacking my colony. One thing the hawk does, is always go after the slowest moving bird. The decoys I have have been hit so many times they are turned upside down. Even though they are hanging upside down they still work very well. Hawks are slow learners.
The martins got use to them fairly quickly. At first they would dive at them and squawk loudly.
The decoys are part of my predator defence system which includes owl bars, Nite Guard solar lights, and a bird feeding station off to the side of my yard. I have dove decoys at the feeding station. Hawks love doves.
It was fun to watch the hawks try and grab the decoy. No matter how hard they tried the bird would not come off the perch!
My colony is on the shore of a large lake. When the hawk shows up, the entire colony will chase the hawk out over the lake. The martins will make a danger call to alert colony about hawk.
I also have a large number of Bald eagles at my site. They coexist very well with the martins and have helped keep the owls and hawks away. The eagle are more interested in fish.

Spiderman · Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:46 pm

gussiemike wrote: ↑
Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:25 pm
Hi, I have found that with decoys and playing the dawn song cd it helps with attracting more P Martins. My birds don't seem to mind the decoys they even perch on them. As for hawks they are fooled often and hit on the decoys. Sure glad I have mine and I leave them up all season.

I've had the same experience.

Leave them up all year, they will help with the Hawks.

flyin-lowe · Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:21 am

I always keep a few decoys in the area of my housing, either above, or on a perching station I have next to my gourd rack. From time to time I have martins that do not like the decoys at all and spend a great deal of time "attacking" the decoys. In that case I move them further away. I keep them as close as I can to help with predator attacks. On more then one time I have seen a hawk swoop in and hit the decoys giving the PM's a few more seconds to get away.

hmouch12 · Mon Apr 08, 2019 7:28 pm

Well, I’ve had a bunch of visitors stop by my house set up but none have stuck. One day I had 6 circling but they hung out for the day and were gone by the evening. I had one male stay the night in my house one night and was gone the next day. I’ve played daytime chatter from an mp3 file I had on a Bluetooth device but I don’t have the Dawnsong. Maybe I should try to find that to play. This morning when I left for work at 5:30 in the morning and in the dark I swear I heard some flying above. I didn’t know they flew in the dark. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll get any this year since it’s already April and I’m in Louisiana. Any advice would be appreciated!