Scare

[Mbigger]

I live in Belmont NC and I’ve had a colony for five years. I have two poles with a total of twenty four PMCA gourds. I’m usually fully occupied by the end of April. My first arrival was a lone adult male on February 24th. Within about a week I had 6 to eight birds working the gourds. On day six I suddenly had no birds. This persisted for 7 more days. Though I have predator guards, the only thing that made sense to me was a predator though I had seen none. Yesterday I went down to my site which is on a lake. The only thing obvious to me was a piece of pipe about 30” long and an inch in diameter someone had layed on the ground under the poles. Don’t know where it came from. I thought that maybe this looked like a snake from the air so I quickly removed it. The next day the martins returned and we are back to normal. I think I was right about the pipe looking like a snake. If you have a similar occurrence check your site for signs of a predator such as this. Even if it’s not real. Mike in NC.

[Stingray]

Mbigger,
I'm glad your birds came back.
All's well that ends well

My colony is smaller than yours.
I have 18 gourds complete with predator guards.
My first arrivals did the same as yours this year for about the same length of time. I ony had 5 birds at the time.
Like yours, my birds did come back.
This behavior is not totally uncommon to me but usually with just the first 1 - 2 birds.
I do have the typical predators, and I am as vigilant as possible scaring away a pesky hawk, crows and starlings.

Regards,