After 7 years, I finally had a nesting pair (SY male and SY female) in 2022. I am always looking at the progression of landlord's colonies on their posts and it seems as though almost all of them take off the second year. I was hoping for great things the second year (2023) and only had one nesting pair. I'm pretty sure it was the same pair as they were both ASY birds and they flew right into the same gourd and started building a nest within a couple days. I was thankful for their presence, but no other nesting pairs the second year. I had other visitors, but no one else nested.
Here we are at year #3 and an ASY pair showed up today and immediately checked out the same gourd. Thinking it may once again be the same pair. This brings me to my question: Should I play the dawn song when the sub-adults start showing up in a couple weeks? There are not many colonies in my area and overall bird numbers are not very high. I am concerned that if I lose this pair I will be starting over and I don't know if I have the patience to continue. Will playing the dawn song deter/confuse the current pair? Does anyone have any experience playing the dawn song with a pair committed to your setup?
Dawn Song
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switchgrass2001
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Wed May 25, 2022 4:57 pm
- Location: SW Minnesota
- Martin Colony History: 2015-2021: Visitors with no nesting pairs
2022: 1 pair, 5 fledged
2023: 1 pair, 5 fledged
Last edited by switchgrass2001 on Thu May 02, 2024 3:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.