Going Down After 22 Years

[BumBee]

I am taking my two 12-room Purple Martin housing down for the last time. There
has been no activity in the past three years. I see them flying around feeding in
the area but no visitor.

Mistake 1: having bird feeders that attracted local wild birds. Hawks feasted
on them and the Purple Martins. It was too late by the time I removed
my bird feeders. Avian predators were already established in my neighbor hood.

Mistake 2: having caged birds in my patio. It too attracted hawks to my backyard.

I thought I get to enjoy birds in my backyard year round....WRONG!

Adios Y'All.

[G Saner]

BumBee,

Sorry to hear about your hawk problem. I had the same issue at my last colony. I didn't get down to zero but did get down to 3 pair.

When I retired, our new backyard is poor martin habitat so I moved my gourds and set up a satellite colony. This is my current colony. My gourds are at an Assisted Living Center (with A+ conditions) and I couldn't be happier.

If you are willing to try something a little different to continue the hobby, a satellite colony might be good. Other good locations included golf courses or parks. Really anywhere that is open and you get permission can work. I just thought I would toss it out as another option.

Gary

[BumBee]

Gary,
Thank you very much. I've decided to put an aviary in my backyard instead.

[C.C.Martins]

Bumbee,
Sorry to hear that, you've been at it for a while. Wish you all the best with your aviary. Hope your able to encourage others in your area to become landlords.
Gary had a great suggestion.
Tom

[flyin-lowe]

The hawk is definitely a problem but I am not sure the other birds are to blame. The bird feeders will not draw any more attention of the hawks then a purple martin colony does. Even if you didn't have feeders or the birds on you porch, a colony of martins would attract the attention of hawks.

[BumBee]

No feeders, no wild birds doves, no martins for the past 3 years, still plenty of hawks.

My cage birds attracts hawks, as you can see in the photo I posted, a Sharp Shined hawk
perched on my birds cage.

[C.C.Martins]

Yeah I saw him. Bet your birds were nervous. We have a few flocks of wild parrots here, saw a hawk on a high wire checking two out, the parrots knew it was there and were making all kinds of noise, looked to me like the hawk didnt know what to make of them.
Well you gave it a shot hanging in there for 3 years. Good luck!

[BumBee]

Oh yeah, they did the opossum trick, not a single bird that did not have a nest box
moved specially the pair of Red Rump Parakeets that was 3 feet away
from this hawk.

[Matt F.]

Hi Bumbee,
I've always enjoyed your posts. You've always brought a wealth of knowledge to the forum, as well as some really cool, cutting edge housing designs.
I completely understand where you're coming from. These smaller hawks, namely sharpies and cooper's, have really done a lot of damage to the songbird hobby, for a lot of folks.
Yet another example of a species exploding in numbers, at the expense of other, just as important species, thanks to laws that are completely out of touch with what's actually going on.
I hope you keep contributing here on the forum.
Whether hosting Martins, or not, your knowledge, experience, and ingenuity will always be greatly appreciated.

[Dave Reynolds]

... Like someone said... You can move your housing to a Satilite Site and maybe enjoy Martins there.. That is what I did.. I got so tired after years of trying to start an colony, I ask the local Golf Course if I could try and start a colony on the course.. Sure enough 15 pair the first year at the Golf Course. Then the next year I got my first pair at home.. Strange the way things work out.. Good luck with your new project...

Dave

[BumBee]

There they go. I gave them to a guy that has acreage and a pond in Alvin Texas.
He was doing some work for me, and he notice my PM housing. He started talking about
PMs. I asked if he would like to take my PM housing and he said yes. Today he came
and we took them down.

[Dave Reynolds]

,,, Sorry to hear Bumbee ,,, But you gave it a good try.. Hope the owner of your houses has some success.. Keep us all posted how things are going for ya... from time to time..

Dave