Have been checking nearby established sites by my house for arrival of martins in Nashville. Nothing so far. I have been playing recording for about 2 weeks now from 430 am till noon. I had two (of gourds open but tree swallows that nested in neighbors martin house last year (he had no martins) have been hanging around off and on so closed gourds again.
Based on historical ebird Martin records could be anytime over next couple of weeks. Should i go ahead and open a couple of gourds back up and monitor for Tree Swallows or wait?
I'd open them. Watch for sparrows, trap them in the gourd if possible, pull them out and dispatch them. Get yourself a repeating sparrow trap if your finances are available. Good luck!
There are protocals for dealing with persistent tree swallows that others on the forum are more well versed in than me, but have you tried putting a single gourd close by and close up your Martin gourds. See if the tree swallows will accept it before opening your Martin gourds up.
Martin Colony History: In 2026, 88 pair with 333 fledged youngsters. 110 total cavities available, 82 Troyer Horizontal gourds and a homemade PVC / metal 28 compartment unit, 1 fallout shelter. Hawk and owl guards included. Martin educator and speaker. President and founder of the Iowa Purple Martin Organization. Please visit Iowa Purple Martin Organization on Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1627283871068161 Emails send to [email protected]. Subject line include Iowa Purple Martin.
Go under Education icon near the top middle of this websites, then scroll down to download center, then scan to bottom to click on "Tree swallow emergency". Click it on and you will see how to deal with tree swallows. Best of luck.
Mite control, heat venting, predator protection and additional feeding during bad weather add up to success. IPMO LOGO1.jpg
Since you don’t have an established colony and you do have tree swallows I would leave your Martin housing closed until you see Martin’s investigating your housing. I guarantee you if you open it now it will be occupied by the tree swallows and any Martin’s that try to look at it in the future will be fought off. Read Dan’s protocol, your first step would be setting up a gourd around 30 feet or so from your Martin housing. The sooner you get it up and open the sooner a tree swallows pair will start using it. Once they commit to their own gourd they won’t let another pair of tree swallows close but they will then tolerate Martin’s. There still might be some squabbles initially but nothing like if they were nesting in your Martin housing. Tree swallows are a bigger problem than other competitors when starting a new colony.
gourds open but tree swallows that nested in neighbors martin house last year (he had no martins) have been hanging around off and on so closed gourds again.