Today my husband found that one of our 4 Trio Martin Houses had been raided. He said one of the doors had been opened. Looks like something sat on the top roost rail and ate all but the bodies of the very young birds. Something took them out of the nest and proceeded to eat them one by one on top of that house and the left the main part of the body on the roofs edge. My hubby said there were a lot of Martins just flying around the houses and making a lot of noise today. They would not come close to that martin house until he removed all of the bird remains and closed the door and reattached the safety railing.
What is getting at the babies? What predator would eat them one by one but leave the birds body on the roof? This is the first time in 4 years we have had anything bother our martin colony. I'm afraid the predator will come back every night until it either scares the birds away or eats all the young. What immediate action should we take to stop the attacks?
Bodies on the Martin House Roof
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Guest
Use a full fledged owl guard to prevent the predator from being able to reach in or atleast hinder it. I have a security camera setup to monitor my gourds so I can see what happens in the event they are predated. Gourds have an advantage over housing, especially horizontal gourds when it comes to owls.
If I had to guess, I would say your predator is a Barred Owl or a Great Horned Owl.
If I had to guess, I would say your predator is a Barred Owl or a Great Horned Owl.
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Laverne
- Posts: 2216
- Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2004 1:58 pm
- Location: TX/Alvin
- Martin Colony History: Erected 1st house in 1997. Birds were checking it out before Mike got down from the ladder. Six cavities had a little colony 1st year. Grown to 88 cavities all gourds with near 100% occupancy. Most important factor for success is rain = bugs.
But Owls eat the entire bird or mouse or whatever - they don't leave the body. Would this be a raccoon? Could this have been another house cat?
I think you need to install a serious ground predator guard. There are many different styles and I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions. If not, the PMCA sells some - check those out at the PMCA Shop.
Whatever this predator is - it will be back if you don't stop it and you could lose your entire colony.
I think you need to install a serious ground predator guard. There are many different styles and I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions. If not, the PMCA sells some - check those out at the PMCA Shop.
Whatever this predator is - it will be back if you don't stop it and you could lose your entire colony.
Sincerely,
Laverne
Laverne
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Guest
My husband found that another house has been raided. He said there were little wings and legs and blood all ove the roof of the martin house. He said it was a real mess. There was one little baby still alive on the porch...so he carefully put it back inside the nest. 
With these findings we now wonder if we have a racoon rather than an owl getting into the nests. He made wire owl guards for the houses and tomorrow will put predator guards on the pole. We have been lucky for the last few years and never had any problems....we never expected it....We just hope the martins will return to us next year. We've added a house every year to take care of the previous years birds & their young.
With these findings we now wonder if we have a racoon rather than an owl getting into the nests. He made wire owl guards for the houses and tomorrow will put predator guards on the pole. We have been lucky for the last few years and never had any problems....we never expected it....We just hope the martins will return to us next year. We've added a house every year to take care of the previous years birds & their young.-
Guest
Definetly an owl then. It is either a Barred Owl or a Great Horned Owl. Here is a picture of a Barred Owl.
I have a Great Horned Owl that roost in an old Live Oak tree deep in the woods on my property. I have enough cottontail rabbits to keep it interested in other things though. It has yet to get any of my martins. I use SuperGourds with crescent entrances and the 2 prong owl guards that are sold at the PMCA Shop. I use the crescent entrances to keep out the screech owls, which can easily fit thru a round hole entrance. The 2 prong owl guards are to protect the martins from Barred and Great Horns.
Gourds with crescent entrances and owl guards that are properly spaced are the best defense against owls in my opinion. It is much more difficult to gain access to a gourd, especially a horizontal gourd that swings, as compared to a stable martin house which does not move.
I have a Great Horned Owl that roost in an old Live Oak tree deep in the woods on my property. I have enough cottontail rabbits to keep it interested in other things though. It has yet to get any of my martins. I use SuperGourds with crescent entrances and the 2 prong owl guards that are sold at the PMCA Shop. I use the crescent entrances to keep out the screech owls, which can easily fit thru a round hole entrance. The 2 prong owl guards are to protect the martins from Barred and Great Horns.
Gourds with crescent entrances and owl guards that are properly spaced are the best defense against owls in my opinion. It is much more difficult to gain access to a gourd, especially a horizontal gourd that swings, as compared to a stable martin house which does not move.
Last edited by Guest on Thu Jun 30, 2005 7:04 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Guest
This owl must be taking out his frustrations on the Martins. We have an enclosed chicken coop very close to the Martin houses. I'm sure the owls and other predators have tried every method to get in to the chickens. So...the next best thing is the baby Martins. We have gourds hanging also...but nothing has ever nested in them. They are hanging from the bottom of the Martin houses....maybe that is too close and the dominate birds keep anything from nesting in the gourds.
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Guest
Can you possibly get a picture of your setup. That would really help a lot. I am always curious to see other people's setups.
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Guest
Well now we are really wondering if the is a racoon raiding the nests. It happend again last night even though my DH put 2x4 welded wire on all 3 houses for an owl guard. Something got on top of the house and pulled the wire up and over just far enough to reach in the top nests. He said once again the roof of the house was gruesome with blood and legs & wings. He said there are NO feathers under the houses. On top of the house, however, there were pellet type droppings. What's going on here? We're thinking of buying one of those DeerCam cameras that will take pictures at night. Today he ran wire over the top from one owl guard to the other and pulled the welded wire tight to the roof. He said he did still see very young babies and older Martins in the nests on the bottom row. I pray they will be ok tonight. It's storming here in Missouri...maybe that will keep the predators away.
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Guest
If you have a good predator guard (stovepipe baffle style), then raccoons can not climb the pole. If you are seeing pellets, then that once again leads me to believe an owl is what is predating your colony.
Stovepipe baffles are inexpensive to make. As far as metal caging around your house, you just need to make it more rugged, which it sounds like you are doing. You might want to consider gourds next season, as they are much harder for owls to predate because they move around and stuff and are not stable like housing. Also, spreading your colony out over multiple poles is another good idea.
I know it might sound crazy, but I have several raccoons who are regulars in my yard (as many as 7 at a time) and they do not create any problems for me. I keep them well fed. I have witnessed a baby bird falling on the ground right beside them and watched them ignore it.
note: When I said the raccoons do not create any problems for me, I meant Purple Martin wise. The raccoons do dig up the yard sometimes. They also get into garbage bags on occassion if they can get to one. They also carry off anything shiny, like a crescent wrench or screwdriver, anything that looks interesting to them. I even had one that learned how to change stations on an outdoor radio. So they are not without issues, but are very entertaining.
Stovepipe baffles are inexpensive to make. As far as metal caging around your house, you just need to make it more rugged, which it sounds like you are doing. You might want to consider gourds next season, as they are much harder for owls to predate because they move around and stuff and are not stable like housing. Also, spreading your colony out over multiple poles is another good idea.
I know it might sound crazy, but I have several raccoons who are regulars in my yard (as many as 7 at a time) and they do not create any problems for me. I keep them well fed. I have witnessed a baby bird falling on the ground right beside them and watched them ignore it.
note: When I said the raccoons do not create any problems for me, I meant Purple Martin wise. The raccoons do dig up the yard sometimes. They also get into garbage bags on occassion if they can get to one. They also carry off anything shiny, like a crescent wrench or screwdriver, anything that looks interesting to them. I even had one that learned how to change stations on an outdoor radio. So they are not without issues, but are very entertaining.
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Guest
Patriot...how did you get a picture of the racoons at night? Surely those critters are not tame enough to just wait around the feeder while you take their picture. Also..your the first person I've ever encountered that intentionally feeds racoons.
I have 3 trio Grandpa Houses that are mounted on their poles at 3 different corners of our cattle corral. The corral is close to our other barns and a good distrance from any trees. We have had so much succes for the last 3 years raising martins and there are always so many babies! We have so enjoyed over the last few weeks watching the young ones get their flying lessons. They sky has been full of Martins..and they are so fun to watch!
We will use the wire this year for owl control and I'm in the process of ordering the Trio Owl Guards. Since it seems they will take some time to mount we'll put them on at the end this Martin season after the birds are through with the houses.
Do we need to change to the cresent doors? Are those used mostly to keep out starlings rather than owls? Seems to me if you have the owl guard you don't need cresent doors. We probably won't change to Goards as we have so much cash tied up in the Trio houses....I've even got a 4th one still in the box we had planned to put up next spring.
I do so hope that the predator will get discouraged now and go away. I've read that these Martins may not return to this place next year due to the predator problems they experienced. I hope that is not true..we would be so sad without them.
I have 3 trio Grandpa Houses that are mounted on their poles at 3 different corners of our cattle corral. The corral is close to our other barns and a good distrance from any trees. We have had so much succes for the last 3 years raising martins and there are always so many babies! We have so enjoyed over the last few weeks watching the young ones get their flying lessons. They sky has been full of Martins..and they are so fun to watch!
We will use the wire this year for owl control and I'm in the process of ordering the Trio Owl Guards. Since it seems they will take some time to mount we'll put them on at the end this Martin season after the birds are through with the houses.
Do we need to change to the cresent doors? Are those used mostly to keep out starlings rather than owls? Seems to me if you have the owl guard you don't need cresent doors. We probably won't change to Goards as we have so much cash tied up in the Trio houses....I've even got a 4th one still in the box we had planned to put up next spring.
I do so hope that the predator will get discouraged now and go away. I've read that these Martins may not return to this place next year due to the predator problems they experienced. I hope that is not true..we would be so sad without them.
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Emil Pampell-Tx
- Posts: 6743
- Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2003 1:26 pm
- Location: Tx, Richmond (SW of Houston)
- Martin Colony History: First started in Gretna, La in 1969 with a small homemade house, have had martins ever since at 2 different homes in Texas
An electric fence charger is one of the best ways, or probably the best way, to keep snakes, racoons, etc from climbing the poles. One charger can be used, using underground wire to go from the charger to the pole, and from one pole to another pole. The underground wire is rated for very high voltage like the charger has, and usually can be purchased from the same store that sells the charger. Simply wrap the "hot" wire around the pole, making sure that it does not touch the pole, and putting pvc pipe under it so that the wire will not touch the pole. When something on the ground touches the wire, it will get shocked.
The electric fence will not kill the animal, but they quit coming when they get shocked with a high voltage. The current is real low so it will not kill a racoon or snake, dog, cat, child, person, etc.
The electric fence will not kill the animal, but they quit coming when they get shocked with a high voltage. The current is real low so it will not kill a racoon or snake, dog, cat, child, person, etc.
PMCA Member, 250 gourds, 6 poles, 2traps
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Guest
If you have your poles in the corners of your cattle corral, it sounds like to me, that predators have a nice convenient corral fence to climb to get a head start. A pole that is in a fence row is a bad idea. You can not count the distance from the ground until the fence ends when you are calculating the actual height of your pole for predator protection purposes. So if you have a 14 ft pole in a 6 ft fence row, then in reality, you have a 8 ft pole. Having predator baffles on a pole in a fence line is useless if the baffle is near the fence, they will just simply climb the fence and jump over from there. I am just guessing at all this as I do not have a picture of your setup.
A martin pole should be in the open away from fences or anything and the area around the pole should be lighted at night. This is just my humble opinion.
As far as my raccoons, they are that tame that I can walk up and take pictures. However, that particular picture was taken with my wildlife cam. I do not intentionally feed raccoons, no more than a deer hunter intentionally feeds them when he or she puts out shell corn for the deer.
If you had a camera connected to a VCR montoring this house, you would know exactly what is happening.
A martin pole should be in the open away from fences or anything and the area around the pole should be lighted at night. This is just my humble opinion.
As far as my raccoons, they are that tame that I can walk up and take pictures. However, that particular picture was taken with my wildlife cam. I do not intentionally feed raccoons, no more than a deer hunter intentionally feeds them when he or she puts out shell corn for the deer.
If you had a camera connected to a VCR montoring this house, you would know exactly what is happening.
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Guest
Who would ever think that opening your life to raising martins would be this hard? Mother nature ..... she makes life oh so challenging! We ARE going to get a handle on this predator problem....that is a promise. The owls and racoons will have to get their meals elsewhere from now on. I gave my dad a Martin House for X-mas...and this is the first year he has had Martins. So.....he also will be getting a owl and pole guard. We've learned this lesson well. Thanks for all your help.
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Guest
This morning we found that the houses had been raided again! The owl guards were in place but something still reached through the guard into the nest area and pulled the nests all the way to the porch! It was a horrifying sight...more body parts left on the roof. This has got to be racoons! We have one house full of martins who were feeding their young today. This house has a preditor baffle and an owl guard. My husband is staying up all night...going to sit just inside the barn with his gun and wait for whatever this creature is. We set a trap and the base of the pole using a cherry pie for bait...we've heard that is the snack of choice for racoons! Tonight's the night....we've got to stop this predator that has returned every night for martins. Last weekend we had about 50 birds soaring and teaching the babies to fly....today we had about 7 who were feeding babies in the house. Pray for us that we can stop the killing of martins tonight. We really don't know what else to do.
Seeing that you are raising chickens I would be also looking for a weasel as they don't eat all what they kill but do make a bloody mess as they like to get all the blood they can....often when they kill a chicken they will only take the head off and then sit back with drinks on the house!
2004 3pr 13 f 2005 18pr 80 f 2006 36 pr 138 f
2oo7 38 pr 176 f 2008 41 pr 154 f
2009 51 pr 209 f 2010 61 pr 247 f
2011 124E 122Y 55P so far
2 Sweet 16s SREH homemade
2 Trio Castles converted 24 into 12 w/porch dividers + SREH (for sale EOS )
1 towering "20" 76 total cavities
2oo7 38 pr 176 f 2008 41 pr 154 f
2009 51 pr 209 f 2010 61 pr 247 f
2011 124E 122Y 55P so far
2 Sweet 16s SREH homemade
2 Trio Castles converted 24 into 12 w/porch dividers + SREH (for sale EOS )
1 towering "20" 76 total cavities
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CUL Lou~Mich
Billie. I'm going to stick my neck out, and probably get my head chewed off. After this many times, I'd be out there all night with a .22, or shotgun. I'm thinking you have a coon doing this. I doubt very seriously that an owl would pull the guard up, and reach around it. Coons however are pretty smart. They've been know to get into lots of places no other animal would. I'm thinking you have a momma coon, and her babies. CUL Lou
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Guest
We've been keeping a close vigil on the one house remaining with baby martins. We beefed up the wire on the house and lengthed the stove pipe guard on the pole. My DH has sat up 3 nights watching and waiting for the predator to return. The first night he saw one small raccoon coming towards him in the barn. Guess it noticed the doors were open and decided to check it out! DH moved his lookout to the poultry building where he could watch out a window. He has seen anything since the first night. We've only caught one opossum in the trap. We set two traps last night....so we'll see this morning if we've caught anything else. We have a friend who trapped 21 raccoons at an abandoned farm house...his bait....cherry pie! So....we are hopeful we can catch our predator too!
If we can just keep this predator away a little longer till the babies are flying...we'll be happy. The few martins we have left are happy and singing and continuing to feed their babies.
If we can just keep this predator away a little longer till the babies are flying...we'll be happy. The few martins we have left are happy and singing and continuing to feed their babies.
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Guest
Billie, is there anyway you can get a digital picture of your setup to e-mail to me?
If you have a predator baffle properly installed, the raccoon should not be able to get around it. As you can see from my previous photos, I have a whole gang of raccoons living on my property and I have never had them reach my Purple Martin gourds. The only thing I have to worry about is raptors.
Snakes and raccoons are just a matter of a good predator baffle and snake netting. It is the raptors that are hard to deal with.
It would just help everyone get a visual on your predated colony if we had a photo.
If you have a predator baffle properly installed, the raccoon should not be able to get around it. As you can see from my previous photos, I have a whole gang of raccoons living on my property and I have never had them reach my Purple Martin gourds. The only thing I have to worry about is raptors.
Snakes and raccoons are just a matter of a good predator baffle and snake netting. It is the raptors that are hard to deal with.
It would just help everyone get a visual on your predated colony if we had a photo.