Another Newbee in Ft. Worth

[Jim Rockford]

Hi all,

I'm new this year to purple martins. I've been lurking around here for awhile to learn. This is a great site with lots of good information. My thanks to all the posters.

My wife got me a martin house last year in June for my birthday, and I put it up in February in preparation for the season. I kept the holes plugged until last night, when I opened 2 of 12. This morning at 7:30 I had two martins perched on the house! They appeared to be an adult male and an adult female, although I understand the adults should have already settled around here. I was thinking I'd end up with sub-adults this year.

Anyway, I didn't watch for long before several sparrows showed up and muscled in. I think I saw a starling as well. These things apparently came out of the woodwork when I opened the house. The martins flew away for a long time but they've been back twice since. I ordered a nest box trap immediately today from the PMCA but since it will take awhile to get it, I thought I'd check locally for a trap. I found one at a local feed store like the one pictured here: Pied Piper Sparrow Trap.

Unfortunately, I didn't get instructions with the trap and was told to elevate it several inches from the ground with the "funnel" pointing up and bait the ground underneath the funnel with seeds, breadcrumbs, nest material, etc. The sparrows evidently forage underneath the funnel and then fly up and into the trap. So far, no joy for me so I thought I'd ask if anyone here has experience with this trap. I'll install the nest box trap as well as soon as it comes in.

I can't describe how excited I was when I saw those two martins this morning and when they came back a couple times this afternoon. Perhaps if I get serious about controlling S&S they'll stick around.

Thanks for any information.

Ed

[klcretired]

Hello Ed and Welcome to the forum , i live in grand prairie right off I-20 & Carrier Pkwy in Westchester. From what i read it looks like you are on the right path Controling the S&S's will be beneficial to the Growing of your colony and keep you from finding dead martins/Babies/eggs because of those scum beaks, i didn't see anything about your martin house does it have round hole entrances??, if you have the sreh's (Cresents) that would be great. sreh stands for Starling resistant entrance holes, one thing i did was get me a S&S repeating trap , best investment i ever made , it traps all year long every year and if you place it near a tree the martins won't go near it ,you will only trap the S&S's ,you can buy the trap here online or you can buy the plans to make the trap...something to think about. There is a wealth of Knowledge here on this site from Landlord's that have been thru it all, you should read,read ,read everything you can on the archives and around on this site it will help you better understand.Good luck this year getting your colony started and if you need anything just post it and someone will help you and if you are ever close to my neighborhood email me at my email address below and i would be glad to give you my address and info and help you with anything you don't understand or if you just want to come by and see my colony i would love to have you.

[Guest]

Welcome aboard Ed. Glad to have another Texan in the bunch!!
I haven't dealt with that type of trap, but I think most use breadcrumbs and white feathers.... drives em wild I guess.

Chuck

[Jim Rockford]

i didn't see anything about your martin house does it have round hole entrances??

I have a Nature House MSS-12 with 12 round holes. I believe this is also known as the Trio Grandpa. I almost bought some SREHs awhile back but I was concerned from some of what I read here that I might chase the martins off. I may still get some SREHs. I also had my eye on one of those repeating traps but I bought the cheaper one instead. I'm like that. Thanks for the suggestion and the warm welcome.

I'm in North Richland Hills, about 5 miles north of NE Loop 820/Airport Freeway. You can reach me by email at g_e_fox at hotmail dot com.

It looks like the pair of martins I saw this morning are moving in to one of the holes. Every time they come back the sparrows try to move in, but the martins seem quite aggressive themselves. I'm hoping a combination of harassment by me and constant nest cleanout together with a little luck with that trap will keep the sparrows at bay.

Ed

[~Patrick~]

Welcome Ed,

I'm from Fort Worth. I have a MSS12 also with all SREHs. I started with round holes but lost a female to starlings and immediately got excluders. They quickly learned to accept them and I've not lost any since. I made some huber style traps, plans available online, and have a spar-o-door and have trapped 12 or 13 so far this season. There is a never ending supply of house sparrows and they never give up. It sounds like you're well on your way to starting a good colony. Best of luck and if there is anything I can help you with, send me an e-mail or just ask on the forum.

Patrick

[Guest]

Ed,

Congratulations! That Spar-O-Door works great! Catch a live one then put it in your other trap to attract others.

I hope your pair stays.

[Guest]

Ed...I also bought a trap as described in your link in the first post. I have not been able to trap a darn thing in it...have tried several times but no luck. Perhaps we are missing something. If you discover the magic formula or if I stumble upon it, let's share!

Best of luck and congrats on your martins,

Sue
City by the Sea, TX

[Dale Hrncirik]

Ed,

Welcome to the forum! As Nesto mentioned, the sparrow-door is a great weapon for trapping sparrows in a trio style house. I don't have that type house anymore so I rely on Huber style nestbox traps which are magnets for starlings and sparrows because of their (martin-unfriendly) location and large 2" round hole.

It's good to hear you have investigating martins but being a new colony, the sparrows will likely have the upper hand since they are very agressive birds.

You've got a great landlord(Patrick)near you and willing to help you...that's great. Keep us informed how things go for you this year and best of luck,

feel free to send me a pm if you've got questions
Dale

[Jim Rockford]

Thanks again everyone for the encouragement and warm welcomes.

The pair that was hanging around yesterday spent the night last night. At various points throughout the day today, I had as many as 5 martins on the house, all evidently ASY males and the one female. I had at least 3 martins in one compartment at one time, so I went ahead and opened all the holes based on what I saw over in Tim from Arkansas' post. Perhaps they're trying to form a colony? I'm really surprised to be attracting what appear to be ASY birds to a new house.

The martins have not started nest-building yet. I guess they've got to decide for sure if they're going to stay before they do that.

I have one pair of sparrows trying desperately to establish in one of the compartments. I shoo them off whenever I can, and I've cleaned their trashy nest out a couple times (and put the material in my useless trap!). The martins have been very aggressive and have attacked the sparrows a couple times. At one point, an ASY male forcibly evicted a sparrow from the compartment it was claiming, wrestling him to the ground in the process, but it returned. Although there are hundreds of sparrows around here, that pair seems to be keeping the rest of them away from my house. Some good, perhaps? Meanwhile, the trap I bought has been an abject failure. I think I'm too close to my neighbors to shoot the sparrows. Are there pellet or BB guns available that can be safely used in close quarters? I suspect not, so I'll try to hold my own until the nest box trap comes. I hope I have more luck with it. If I get a live bird with that, I'll put it in the Pied Piper trap, Sue, and see if that works. I'll keep you posted.

Nesto, will the Spare-O-Door fit the MSS-12? If so, I'll get one of those if the nest box trap fails. I'll probably order SREHs when I do that.

I've seen two starlings in the vicinity of the house in the last two days. I'd really like to get things started before switching to SREHs, but I'm going to be vigilant in any event. Thanks for the warning about your experience, Patrick.

My wife thinks I'm nuts when I go outside and talk to the martins. They seem to enjoy the company. Although the sparrows rush off when I walk outside, the martins are happy to hang around. The seem to like it when I shoo the sparrows away.

Ed