DAWNSONG

Guest · Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:45 am

CAN THE DAWNSONG BE PLAYED TO MUCH OR TO LONG???????

I R COTTON
TENN.

Bob Rogers · Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:40 pm

My thoughts are that the dawnsong should be played to mimic the real thing. PM's start the dawnsong before daybreak and stop shortly after daybreak. Usually it is done only by the ASY males. Some birders believe the older males do this to advertise a good colony sight. I don't believe this is true. I believe the older males dawnsing for the same reason other male birds do this --- when their female's eggs are about to hatch. They may sing out to attract other females, but of course other males will hear it as well. Playing the dawnsong at all times of the day, may do more harm than good---PM's know when other PM's sing. Logical?
If you want to try and attract PM's during other parts of the day, try a PM chatter tape. Caution! Any recording of PM's singing /chatter will draw in hawks as well as PM's---sometimes right to the boombox! They know that all the bird noise is their dinner bell

Guest · Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:50 am

It says in the little booklet that comes with the CD that males sing their dawnsong at about the same time that subbies are coming into their area, to attract them? Which doesn't really make logical sense to me. I've just this week started hearing live dawnsong in my neighborhood. I wonder if this means I may still see some subbies.

I think I agree with you Bob, that it might be best to play it to mimic nature.

Guest · Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:55 am

I had a pair show up Saturday and Sunday morning but did not stay around. I haven't seen any stop by since.

Yesterday about 5pm I got out the boombox and played the Dawnsong. Within 5-minutes I had two ASY males stop by. One of them actually had half his tail missing. Maybe near miss by a hawk? Anyway one of the males stayed all night.

I played it about three times in row. I'm a firm believer in it. I really think it helped me get my martins last year. Those guys should be showing up soon but I only had 3-pair so hopefully nothing happened to them.

Guest · Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:26 am

IR- If you are trying to attract I would play it whenever you can. I had much better luck with the dawnsong over the chatter. In the six years it took me to attract I always could bring in some martins with the dawnsong played at any time of the day I could play it. I agree morning and evening is best, but they will respond to it at all times of the day. When you have birds there and looking, turn it way down or off. Good luck, Dennis

Fred Kaluza~MI · Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:39 am

I tell you this much...it can be played too much for ME to stand! After 4 years I think I know when every chirp is about to happen. Let's think about when most people see the arrival of Martins. If birds arrive consistantly in the morning and not mid-day or evening then what can it mean? Does it mean that looking out the window is the first thing expectant landlords do as soon as they wake up in the morning and never otherwise? I think the birds actually bed-down NEAR the housing in the pre-dawn hours after actually FINDING the site in pitch blackness. Then they camp out maybe an hour away and again fly back towards it when the sun delivers enough light to allow them to see inside the cavities. I catch most of my Starlings between dawn and 2 hours after in a nest-box trap. Again, markers that cavity hunting birds are eager to get first looks at openings first thing in the mornings. Anybody ever put a time-lapse infra-red camera on their housing and monitored the arrival times of Martins? Maybe someone could petition the PMCA for a little grant money to find out if the arrival times are consistant at each location and try to figure out what it all means.

John Kendall · Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:13 pm

There are some good theories here, but, no proof it can't be overplayed.
But, wisdom is as people said, in the dawn to first light.

Last year, after 5 years of trying, I got ahold of the people via this webiste and bought dawnsong with a timer (at a remote site, unmanned).
I also installed SREH and gourds on the house and got martins within one day!

I think that no matter what, dawnsong tells other migrating and local martins to come in and check it out, and it is loud enough to be heard a long way off. Dawnsong is the best advertising you could do!