Hoping for a better year

[charlesgremillion]

After last year's disaster, I am hoping for a better year. I've addressed several hard lessons learned from last year. I am adding predator guards, a combination of DIY with bird netting and one purchased from PMCA. Aggressively trapping House Sparrows (there seems to be an unlimited number of them) and my most difficult project was to trim two 40-foot Crape Mrytle trees. Even though I love the flowers they produce I may take them down completely depending how fast they regrow this summer.
Hoping that everyone has a successful 2022 season.

[attachment=0]tree2 (2)2.jpg[/t

[C.C.Martins]

Hi Charles, the birds will appriciate your efforts. Good call on the guards.
It'll take a while to get the sparrows down, but keep at it. It can be done, seems like a never ending battle. A combination of food traps and then transition to nest box traps. That way your never giving them rest. I stopped only when a hawk started passing by.
Iv 7 nest box traps around the house, two are a PMCA nest box, rest bird houses fitted with van ert traps.
Here soon ill break out the blains trap, hope to catch sparrows and place them in it for bait.

The crepe mertle is a beautiful tree sorry to see it go, but it will encroach on your martins. i think you did the right thing. Just a suggestion....its a mature tree....if you cut it back even further it will come back but be a bit more manageable for you that way you can still enjoy the flowers. Ultimately the martins will be happier.

[SSMartin]

Do you have any pictures of your setup? I lost a thriving colony at a different property. By the time I noticed it was too late. Rat snakes and a barred owl and the birds on the third year decided they weren’t coming back.

[Thomas Maddox]

Never heard of owls causing them to completely abandon a site. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Rat snakes, on the other hand, will cause them to leave and never come back. My baffles and netting are in place already (hopefully it works). Best of wishes on a great year!

[flyin-lowe]

Any predator can cause martins to abandon a colony. It's just depends on how frequent they visit.