Dawn song CD player

[wroeske22]

This will be year number five for me trying to get that first nesting pair. I’ve had the dawn song playing from a CD player hooked up to a speaker on the martin house that plays on repeat. I’ve bought and replaced the CD player a few times as they all eventually break. I was wondering what cd player you guys use and if there is one I can buy where I can set what time of day it plays everyday so I can set it and not have to touch it again. Thanks

Any other tips are appreciated as I’m hoping year five is the one!

[flyin-lowe]

Here is what I did that worked fairly well for me, at both locations where I started colonies. I used a CD player alarm clock. If I remember right the CD plays for about 75-80 minutes. The alarm I had, had two separate alarms so I set one to start at 4AM and then the next one to start when that one finished. That way I didn't have to mess with it before I woke up. Then I would manually start it one more time which would have it playing through the morning. I didn't play it after that.

At my old house I had a pole barn about 20 yards from my PM housing so I just kept the alarm clock in a trash bag, sitting on a crate off the ground, under the overhang of the barn to help protect it from the weather. They would usually last 4-5 years that way. At my current house my house is close enough I just kept in on my front porch, but still in a trash bag to keep moisture out. As long is it is somewhere in the vicinity of your housing it is fine. The goal of the dawnsong is to get them to drop down from the sky. Once that happens it is up to the bird if they like your housing or not. I never worried about having a speaker on the housing.

[jhcox]

I have had a lot of luck out of the Song Bird magnet. I have two of them I eat the back of my house and one at the front. I plug them into a cheap plug in time from Walmart I have them both set to play from 5am to 9am then again from 12 to 2pm then an hour before dark. Set it up and forget it. Works great plenty loud enough. You can get them on Amazon for $40 or $50 buck great investment if you really want to attract Purple Martins.

Good luck and God bless
JHCOX Heiskell TN

[deancamp]

You can plug whatever player you use into a timer, so you can choose when you want it to play. Have you been getting visitors over the past years? Is your housing in an open area with good flyways? Maybe post a picture from google maps.

[wroeske22]

Thanks for the replies. The house has good open fly ways. There has been many visitors. Two years ago there was an SY male that tried for a couple months to attract a female but was unsuccessful. One day he brought in 8 other martins, they all flew off and he flew after them squawking. He’d come back every time a little sad and go sit in his gourd before flying out again and trying some more.

[deancamp]

Nice setup for location and housing. You are giving multiple options with house and gourds so that is good. The past activity sounds very promising as well, so it might be just playing the waiting game. I started my colony with the help of a decoy. Prenesting and making it dirty around the entrance holes can help. Martins want to nest with other Martins, so anything you can do to make it look like others are nesting there will help.

[wroeske22]

Thanks Jeff. Here’s some videos of the bird we called Pepé shooting his shot but getting rejected. https://photos.app.goo.gl/1UfADKr3F7WuJpc8A

[deancamp]

Haha, he sure was proud of his digs! As you witnessed it can be hard for an sy male to attract a mate. You are doing the right things, be patient and it will happen. Good Luck!!