Snakes and Racks

[Jones4381]

More snake deterrents the better I learned the hard way. Been using baffles from Troyer but a Black rat snake defeated it and claimed a few gourds with the younglings inside of at least 2 full nest this past week. Found the Rat snake resting on the arm of a 24 rack pole and I removed it and repurposed the intruder. Added 4 bird netting deterrents above the baffles yesterday. Hate to have dealt with it yesterday and just a friendly reminder to observe and add as many deterrents as possible to your housing set up. I had the wire fencing and netting for the last month and a half and just "got busy doing other things"....Get er done if you haven't already. Hope everyone is having a great season. Quite an increase in hawk attacks this season but with 66 cavities full it's to be expected I assume. They tend to draw attention to themselves don't they during the nesting and fledging times... Best wishes.

[Conrad Baker]

Snakes are definitely a major problem. Fortunately I haven't had any bother my martins, but I think one got to the Mockingbird nest in the bush right outside my window. A week ago there were three babies in the nest, 2 days later they were gone. No signs of them on the ground and they were way too young to climb out by themselves. The bush is really thick and the nest is not visible except from my window or if you part the outer foliage. Only thing I can guess is that a snake made a meal of all three of them.