New to martins

[Guest]

I am new to purple martins and I am trying to do this right. I have the Heritage Farms quad pods, three high. I also have two gourds hanging from them.

I saw my first adult yesterday. I have two compartments open and the rest are closed. I don't want the sparrows to move in, as there are many hanging around. When should I open the rest of the pods? I have read that I should wait a couple of weeks after I see my first adult but I am anxious. There was a successful purple martin house two doors down last year but I believe, much to my dismay, a high wind blew it down recently. I don't want to lose out on attracting them this year.

Thanks,
Fledging I

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

The thing that I would do is to open about 3 apartments at a time, and as they fill up, you could open more..

The other thing that is probably much more important is that you trap the sparrows. You may need to get a couple traps, as there will be a lot of sparrows at your place until you trap most of them..this will be the deciding factor for you..You must try to win the battle with the sparrows...

There are basically 3 kinds of traps:
1) a trap that you may be able to put into the house
2) a free standing nest box trap - put it under the edge of your roof or near some bushes so the martins won't go in
3) a bait trap

All traps need to be monitored, checked daily, so you can release the good birds, but you need to destroy the sparrows if you intend to be a very successful martin landlord.

Sparrows & starlings are non-native birds, they kill the native birds and worse, they take all of their nests. It is completely legal to destroy these 2 birds, and it is recommended to protect the native birds like martins, bluebirds, chickadees, tree swallows, etc...

[apundt-TX]

I am doing the same thing. I plan on open just a couple right now in order to hopefully get some ASY(after second year"adult") birds to peek into my houses/gourds. If some move in I will open more. By April 1st I will open the rest of the holes in order to gain some SY(Second year"juvenile " birds that usually start new sites.

Hope that helps.

[Guest]

Thank you both. I mentioned to my husband about trapping. He is not too keen on the destruction of the trapped birds. I will tell him that to be successful I must trap the unwanted. I plan to order the trap through the PMCA.

I will also open more pods as the days go by.

Thanks again. I will keep you posted.

[apundt-TX]

Most people feel that way about the trapped birds at first. Once you see what a sparrow or starling does: pecking the martin eggs, harassing martins so the visitors do not stay, or killing the martins in an actual fight.
Then they change there minds.

A.P.

[Laverne]

...and it is truly sad that Purple Martins must die before humans can "see" the problem with these two non-native species.

Try to imagine the devastation being caused by them in the nests of the natural cavity nesters who have no humans to protect them...

[klcretired]

M Swan,
all the above is good advise from active PM Landlord's , I have the S&S repeating trap that i bought from the PMCA several year's ago and it works Great , it would be a very good investment if you want to eliminate all of those Trash Beaks that harm the Martins their eggs and their young. what i like about the S&S repeating trap is that it re-sets it self after each catch and the caught bird's come down a Tube into a round cage w/ a door on it at our eye level, Very easy access, even for someone Handicapped like me. I used to have a pic of my trap posted for everyone to see, if need be i can post it again for you to look at/or you can see it on the pmca ,shop traps website.

[Guest]

Just back again to read some posts and I saw this one about the traps. Where would one place this repeating trap and if you release the sparrows and such won't they just come back? So, what does everyone do with them once they are trapped??

I have been target practicing and haven't seen many sparrows by my house this past week. I have three decoys on the house and 2 holes open out of six

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

birdlady58, there are some things that are pretty much required if you want to do certain things. These required duties are not always easy, but they are the building blocks if you wish to accomplish the task..In martineering, one of the building blocks is that starlings and sparrows need to be eliminated (not released!). You may not like to kill a sparrow or starling, but they are very dangerous to martins...they are like a rattlesnake under every chair at your breakfast table. If you don't kill them, they will come back, and they will chase away the martins, peck the eggs, and even kill the babies and the parents.

I know this step of killing them is very objectionable to some new people, but if you don't plan on doing that, then you don't need a trap. So how do you do it? Kill them the quickest way that you can so the bird does not suffer, such as pullng on his head and you can feel the neck bone separate and that kills them instantly, another way is to drown them, another way is to spray them with starter fluid while you have them in a small plastic bag, or hold them and step on their head...the quicker you kill them, the better...then I throw mine in the pasture and the racoons eat them..

the repeating trap could be put near a shed or a tree...Martins don't like houses near trees or bushes so that may be a good place for the repeating trap..You may try several locations to see which works best

[Donna - TX]

This is how I get rid of the sparrows. (go to the site below) I found this in the archives on this site.
Don't you just love this forum.

Donna

http://www.purplemartin.org/forumarchiv ... Humane.htm

[CUL Lou~Mich]

That method is fine for "Multiple" birds to dispose of. However, if one anly has "One" at a time, It's better to use something smaller. I personally use a Quart jar. Many many folks have one sitting around. Just get a ring, and lid. I put the lid on upside down, so it doesn't try to seal. Then I dump them into a plastic bag, and into the trash barrel. I don't want Coons, or cats being attracted to my site by leaving dead birds laying around. It's fine if others do, Just my preferrence. CUL Lou

[Guest]

thanks to all for the replies. We have a freeze here today, I don't see anything walking or flying outside lol