New Landlord with a few questions

[Cooch366]

Good morning,

I’m a new landlord to the PM community (been one for other species and very successful with Bluebirds) and decided to venture into the PM arena.

I built and installed the house pictured in April of this year. Evicted several House Sparrow attempts, but was not successful at drawing PM’s.

Yesterday I completed & installed the gourd rack, (with a 4x4 winch system which I fabricated). Hoping to increase our chances of success.

In following the Gourd instructions, I added the pine needles as recommended, something I did not do in April to the main house. So my questions are:

Am I too late this season in installing the Gourds? (I’m in North Central Massachusetts)

Could not having nesting materials in the house be the reason it was not occupied?

Any additional tips, information or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are looking forward to this adventure.

Many Thanks…. Steve

IMG_2687.jpeg (214.64 KiB) Viewed 192 times

IMG_2688.jpeg (188.87 KiB) Viewed 192 times

[jhcox]

Place a couple PM decoys on top of the housing it has two purposes to attract PM and to help with hawk or owl attacks. Smear mud on the entrances of both the goirds and the house to make it look a little lived in. Pine needles are a must as well. But in my the most valuable asset to a new landlord is the Dawn song via a cd playing with a speaker outside. Or as I did just for the simplicity of it is the (Song bird magnet ) its a green water proof box that plays the song and it has like a 20’ cord so you can mount it on a pole or I. One of the cavities of your house. The. You plug it to a timer and set it to play for 2 or 3 hours in the early morning 5am to 8am the. Again at 12 to 2 and again in the evening say 6 to 8. They work great and are not very expensive I have two one in the back PM racks and one in the front PM rack. I hope this helps good luck next year.

JHCox
Heiskell TN

[Cooch366]

Place a couple PM decoys on top of the housing it has two purposes to attract PM and to help with hawk or owl attacks. Smear mud on the entrances of both the goirds and the house to make it look a little lived in. Pine needles are a must as well. But in my the most valuable asset to a new landlord is the Dawn song via a cd playing with a speaker outside. Or as I did just for the simplicity of it is the (Song bird magnet ) its a green water proof box that plays the song and it has like a 20’ cord so you can mount it on a pole or I. One of the cavities of your house. The. You plug it to a timer and set it to play for 2 or 3 hours in the early morning 5am to 8am the. Again at 12 to 2 and again in the evening say 6 to 8. They work great and are not very expensive I have two one in the back PM racks and one in the front PM rack. I hope this helps good luck next year.

JHCox
Heiskell TN

Thanks for the tips. I will look into implementing them.

I also see from your history (thanks for that) that it may take some time to be successful in attracting them. Kudos to you for sticking with it for years with no activity, but it looks like the persistence and wait was well worth it.

I hope I am not too late to attract them this year, or least have this year count as an attempt…..

[Bird Brain]

Adding pine needles definitely helps out the birds. But I wouldn't blame that for not getting occupied, especially on your first year.

Doesn't look like the house can be lowered. That will be a pain. The house doesn't have starling resistant entrance holes. That's almost guaranteed to be a problem. I'm guessing the rooms in the house are small also, (6" X6")? Small rooms can function but make it easier for predators, especially owls. Small rooms also lead to smaller clutches. Larger rooms lead to larger clutches. You're likely to get large clutches in the gourds, and small clutches in the house. The roomy gourds will get chosen first I imagine. The gourds look great. But small rooms, and round holes are not ideal for the birds. Ladder nest checks get old after a while too. It's ok. Nobody gets it right the first time. Your heart's in the right place. I wish you luck.

[Cooch366]

Adding pine needles definitely helps out the birds. But I wouldn't blame that for not getting occupied, especially on your first year.

Doesn't look like the house can be lowered. That will be a pain. The house doesn't have starling resistant entrance holes. That's almost guaranteed to be a problem. I'm guessing the rooms in the house are small also, (6" X6")? Small rooms can function but make it easier for predators, especially owls. Small rooms also lead to smaller clutches. Larger rooms lead to larger clutches. You're likely to get large clutches in the gourds, and small clutches in the house. The roomy gourds will get chosen first I imagine. The gourds look great. But small rooms, and round holes are not ideal for the birds. Ladder nest checks get old after a while too. It's ok. Nobody gets it right the first time. Your heart's in the right place. I wish you luck.

Thanks for the info, and encouragement, very helpful & appreciated.

The house can be lowered, the pole pivots on one of three bolts in the base 4x4’s. Heavy but doable.

Fortunately starlings are not a major issue here. We get an occasional one, which are quickly dispatched. The bigger issue are the house sparrows. We dropped the house a couple of times this spring to clean new nests out (no eggs in them) and that seemed to discourage them.

The house building was a winter project and I guess I should have done more research as to what type to build. I’ve now realized that this is version #1. So to help with the raising/lowering, and utilizing the winch/lift, I am looking at plans to build a T14 this winter that will ride the 4x4 and attach the gourds underneath it. In reading your suggestions this will also “fix” some of the shortcomings of version 1 (hole type & room size).

We’re looking at this as an adventure & learning process. We were hoping for success this year but now realize it could take some time and although a little disappointed, even we are more determined now.

Thanks again…. Steve

[scottfreidhof]

Your set-up looks fantastic Steve. The birds will appreciate your effort once they find you. It is probably too late to attract a nesting pair this summer. However it is not too late for area birds to find your housing and potentially improve your chances next spring. Maybe leave the housing up until pre-migratory roosts finally break up and head south at your latitude in late summer. In my experience the 6x6 inch rooms are not preferred by starlings and that can work to your advantage with your current house. I started with aluminum Trio houses with 6x6 interior compartments. I don't remember starlings trying to nest in those compartments so the round holes did not matter.