New landlord here 12/28

[jamesdubinjr]

Greetings everyone,

I’m excited to be here. I learned about PCMA only after investing in a Martin apartment complex. Darn. Good stuff in this store.
2022 was the beginning and a disaster. Nothing but sparrows and starlings. 1 wren. Our starter kit was a 12 room with a 4 piece pole and 4 plain gourds. A big hassle. There’s an established colony about .5 miles from us at the beach. But the housing makes nest checks impossible and the landlord is fine with sparrows cohabitating with the Martins.

We have a flagpole around 20 feet from where we’re going to install the ground socket. Everything else is wide open. 30-40 feet. Is that going to be OK?

We’re also going to begin with 8 apartments and I’m going to custom make a bracket to hang 4 gourds, purchased here from the bottom of the 2nd floor once we become paid members.

The new gear appears to be of the highest quality standards where the old gear was just junk. Sorry Heath.

The book said to use pine shavings and needles to make them look lived in because it’s attractive to them. The dawn song and 2” round black stickers on the sides also. Is it OK to use cedar shavings? Diatomaceous Earth for parasites?

Does anyone use their computer to automatically play the dawn song?

I’m going to publish pictures of the old complex and new for comment. Do you think we should put both houses up since the old one was last season? We did capture 1 Martin checking it out on a camera that was obviously chased off by a starling.

And we also took measures to control the sparrow population. It seems like none have wintered over based on feeders in the back yard. It’s a lot of questions that you seasoned veterans can help us help them. Thank you kindly.

[Jones4381]

Welcome to the community. Only 3 years in myself and you've joined an excellent place to learn, share, and enjoy the overall experience. There will be much better recommendations from me as I'm still yielding as a newcomer and learning from others but I would say having a welcoming, maintained and attentive location is first and foremost. Your post absolutely confirms this, so I'll leave the important details to your research (most can be found here) the dialog here and first class responses to your question from more experience than I. Great place to share your ups and downs. I enjoy the sparrow, starling, and hawk discussions as well as following the migration map till mine are here, hope you have a successful 2023; Good luck.

[C.C.Martins]

Welcome and hope this is your year.

I'll try to answer some of the questions.
Do use pine needles, don't use pine shavings but if you must use sparingly, they soak up water as do cedar chips and you end up with wet nests which can be lethal to chicks.
To make the used look, try smearing mud around the entrances and a bit on the porch, would shy away from a big 2 inch fake hole...it can be a starling magnet and could just confuse the martins.
Don't use diatomaceous earth, its great for pest control but is an irritant if martins breath in the dust. I use a bit of sevin dust to control mites. Works great.
Is there any way possible to move it further from the flag pole? Honestly, my neighbor has a flagpole about 40 feet from our systems...martins don't care but if a 5 foot flag is up there 20 feet away, its now at 15 feet in a wind.
Hope this helps,
All the best this season.
Tom

[jhcox]

As for the old gear you can modify it and get ride of those round holes your just asking for starling troubles if there are a lot of them in your area. You can always change the door to SREH Starling resistant entrance holes. The crescent style or Conley style. There is no reason to get rid of the old housing from the pictures it looks pretty new. Like others have said use mud on the entrance and just inside, play the Dawn Song, put up some decoys. And do not let any other birds besides the martins build nest in your housing. Good luck.

[Dave Reynolds]

Welcome the Forum.. Great to have you here with us. Sounds like you are on the right track.. Try to get rid of the round hole entrances if you can.. There are better options for entrances.. One of the secrets that most landlord will tell you, is a good flight path to the houses. I was limited on the flight path until I removed some trees, that opened up the flight path to the houses.. Having only one flight path into your houses will limit the investing Martins.. The more open the better.. Keep the Starlings and the Sparrow under control, and you will be ok.. Patience, Patience and more Patience. ... Good Luck..

Dave

[C.C.Martins]

Greetings everyone,

I’m excited to be here. I learned about PCMA only after investing in a Martin apartment complex. Darn. Good stuff in this store.
2022 was the beginning and a disaster. Nothing but sparrows and starlings. 1 wren. Our starter kit was a 12 room with a 4 piece pole and 4 plain gourds. A big hassle. There’s an established colony about .5 miles from us at the beach. But the housing makes nest checks impossible and the landlord is fine with sparrows cohabitating with the Martins.

We have a flagpole around 20 feet from where we’re going to install the ground socket. Everything else is wide open. 30-40 feet. Is that going to be OK?

We’re also going to begin with 8 apartments and I’m going to custom make a bracket to hang 4 gourds, purchased here from the bottom of the 2nd floor once we become paid members.

The new gear appears to be of the highest quality standards where the old gear was just junk. Sorry Heath.

The book said to use pine shavings and needles to make them look lived in because it’s attractive to them. The dawn song and 2” round black stickers on the sides also. Is it OK to use cedar shavings? Diatomaceous Earth for parasites?

Does anyone use their computer to automatically play the dawn song?

I’m going to publish pictures of the old complex and new for comment. Do you think we should put both houses up since the old one was last season? We did capture 1 Martin checking it out on a camera that was obviously chased off by a starling.

And we also took measures to control the sparrow population. It seems like none have wintered over based on feeders in the back yard. It’s a lot of questions that you seasoned veterans can help us help them. Thank you kindly.

Happy new year!
Up early despite the bombs going off in the neighborhood and thought to put some time to your housing.
Upgrades are the best option, with a colony nearby your likely to attract them but with a few adjustments your chances of keeping them and growing a colony are good..
Glad you decided to get rid of the heath, thats good. Substandard at best and I can say with experience hard to bring up to standards, because iv had one for years.
With the starling pressure id highly recommend the suggestion earlier to use starling resistant openings, there are a number of types to choose from. Martins learn to go in and starlings have real problems. To your gourds: What type of gourds did you get and what entrances....round or SREH? We can help you convert if you got round. Suggest you do that if thats the case.
Think about some type of predator guards on the pole, if a snake is sucessful your colony is at risk and may abandon.
Not much you can do about a wren, can remove nests if no eggs are in evidence.
Finally the sparrows-my favorite subject. You have to get rid of them, they will claim the housing and chase off inspecting martins. Or drive them away by pecking eggs, chicks and adults to death, they are a cavity nester and dangerous to your efforts in building a colony.
Suggest trapping first: can get a simple bird house, reduce the hole to 1 1/4 inch, put in a van ert trap (inexpensive) and place it in a sparrow friendly spot. They will investigate and you've got it. Better yet put up two or 3, strategically placed around your property. With all traps have to monitor, especially with wrens around.
Look at diffrent types of traps, lots to choose from but a nest box trap will appeal to them. PMCA sells an excellent nest box trap, caught many starlings and sparrows. Once the trap is tripped place and enclose (with no gaps) a clear mesh or plastic bag over the whole house and open it, they will come out quick and you can id the bird. If a sparrow rejoice and destroy it, if a wren scold it and let it go.
Suggest you consider a good pellet gun, don't go with bbs...inaccurate. sparrows are a small target, have to hit them the first time, rarely do you get a second shot.
You don't have to be the best shooter in the world, sometimes a nick on a sparrow works.
If you go the shooting option shoot the starlings too. We have SREH, starlings look and give up yet last year I watched a starling stalk a female martin in her cavity, it would hide from her sight and when she tried to exit it would attack...over and over. I shot it dead.
Alot to consider, hope this helps. This information is all here in the forum gleaned from fantastic landlords, you can find it by going to advanced search, type in a subject and search.
Tom

[Dave Reynolds]

Welcome to the Forum.. Great to have you here with us. Sounds like you are on the right track.. Try to get rid of the round hole entrances if you can.. There are better options for entrances.. One of the secrets that most landlord will tell you, is a good flight path to the houses. I was limited on the flight path until I removed some trees, that opened up the flight path to the houses.. Having only one flight path into your houses will limit the investing Martins.. The more open the better.. Keep the Starlings and the Sparrow under control, and you will be ok.. Patience, Patience and more Patience. ... Good Luck..

Dave