Another lost season?
It's April 24th and got 4 gourds up on the pole but no dawn song played. Have been dealing with lot of anxiety the past 2 mths which has left me trying to cope and do the bare minimum in many cases. That an work as been a female dog with alot if ticky tack projects too. Hopeful though that just maybe they'll find me this year.
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Martin man RI
- Posts: 434
- Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:04 pm
- Location: MA/RI area
All i can tell you is that (southern) New England is saturated with Purple Martins Your window to get Martins in this area of the country is mid May to end of June I get them as
late as early July. The time when most adults have returned and are blocking all the prime locations and homes. Yearlings are forced to move on and they do most new sites
are started in June. So hold off and wait till mid May the real time frame for getting martins. People get them loose them and get them back. The birds are so plentiful there nesting back in the old trio 6 by 6 units there desperate for homes and there just not enough. If your location is wide open park like or on a lake you will get them make sure nothing is in there
flight path to gourds. If they continue to show up and dont nest then its your location and you might consider moving gourds to a more attractive location. I would give them five years no birds in five move the gourds. Rhode Island alone has 40 colony's Providence,Washington,Kent,Bristol, County. Not another lost season just started. You can say that in July.
Ray
late as early July. The time when most adults have returned and are blocking all the prime locations and homes. Yearlings are forced to move on and they do most new sites
are started in June. So hold off and wait till mid May the real time frame for getting martins. People get them loose them and get them back. The birds are so plentiful there nesting back in the old trio 6 by 6 units there desperate for homes and there just not enough. If your location is wide open park like or on a lake you will get them make sure nothing is in there
flight path to gourds. If they continue to show up and dont nest then its your location and you might consider moving gourds to a more attractive location. I would give them five years no birds in five move the gourds. Rhode Island alone has 40 colony's Providence,Washington,Kent,Bristol, County. Not another lost season just started. You can say that in July.
Ray
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Martin man RI
- Posts: 434
- Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:04 pm
- Location: MA/RI area
Martins can pick and choose what locations they feel is safe..... its all location with them. But you live in a location that is now saturated with martins there will be house
hunting martins in June that is the time your site would be located. The june birds are homeless and forced to move on the older locations are filling daily thew out southern
NE. They form a flock and take over every gourd if you are lucky. I have seen this happen. This is the time to remove sparrows. and clear the way for the martins. Starlings are
not a problem as long as your gourds are SREH.
Most of my sites are 70% full. By end of june most will be 100 % occupied.
with adults.
Ray
hunting martins in June that is the time your site would be located. The june birds are homeless and forced to move on the older locations are filling daily thew out southern
NE. They form a flock and take over every gourd if you are lucky. I have seen this happen. This is the time to remove sparrows. and clear the way for the martins. Starlings are
not a problem as long as your gourds are SREH.
Most of my sites are 70% full. By end of june most will be 100 % occupied.
with adults.
Ray
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millerjr88
- Posts: 24
- Joined: Mon May 09, 2022 8:41 am
- Location: Orwell, OH
- Martin Colony History: 2020 - 1 pair SY, 4 eggs, hatched and fledged only 1 due to a lone male SY that carried some of the eggs out of the nest.
2021 - 2 pair SY, fledged 7, 2 lone male SY
2022- 2 pair ASY, 3 pair SY, 22 eggs laid, hatched 19, fledged 16. Also one pair SY that nested but did not lay eggs.
2023- 13 pair, 60 eggs, fledged 47.
Very good point from Ray. Your best time for attracting martins to a new site in your area will be after May 15 and well into June. I would definitely make use of the songbird magnet starting about the 3rd week of May. I don't have what would be considered an ideal spot to attract martins, and the songbird magnet is what got mine started. After you have some martins staying they will do a fine job of attracting more without the songbird.
As far as house sparrows go, they can be very frustrating. If you have access to a second floor window facing your martin housing here is what works good for me. I use a .17 HMR shooting out of my second floor bathroom window, this allows me to both hide from the sparrow and be shooting into the ground so as not to put neighbors at risk. It is a very accurate round and small enough that martins are not easily bothered by the noise. Another thing that has worked good for me is whenever a house sparrow puts nesting material anywhere I pull the nesting material and put it in a wire ground trap directly underneath where they tried to nest, they usually go right after the nesting material into the trap.
As far as house sparrows go, they can be very frustrating. If you have access to a second floor window facing your martin housing here is what works good for me. I use a .17 HMR shooting out of my second floor bathroom window, this allows me to both hide from the sparrow and be shooting into the ground so as not to put neighbors at risk. It is a very accurate round and small enough that martins are not easily bothered by the noise. Another thing that has worked good for me is whenever a house sparrow puts nesting material anywhere I pull the nesting material and put it in a wire ground trap directly underneath where they tried to nest, they usually go right after the nesting material into the trap.
Daniel