Am I being two-timed?

[Guest]

My PM pair is around all day, every day but sometimes at night they are not to be seen. I have no nest building going on although I see more and more PM's everyday. Could it be that they are using me...gettin' me hopeful and then gonna break my heart?? Oh say it isn't so!
Tonight my husband lit a fire out back...we have a fire pit that we like to sit around. Sometimes the fires can get pretty big and the pit is probably about 20-30 feet from my PM house. Could this scare them? I guess it would scare me if I were so little and saw a big fire. Do we have to forgo any fire pit time during PM season? Does anyone else have this issue?
Does anyone understand sittin' around a fire, drinkin' beers and listening to the sounds of the night? The fires I can live without if I have to but being two-timed just might be too much to take......

[Guest]

Holly, How long has this been going on? If this is your first year and you do not have an established colony, you may get visitors from the surrounding area or migrating birds passing through. I have been experiencing this since 3/1 and still do not have any taking up permanent residence. Things are really about to pick up soon with the SY birds coming in and you should have some nesting. The important thing is they know where your house is and they are attracted to it. I don't know if the fires at night would scare them off. You are not being two timed, just fitted into the scheme of things!

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Holly, the fire will not bother the martins. It is getting a bit late, your martins should start building a nest shortly..Maybe they are going into the house when you don't see them, and they may even have eggs and are incubating. Can you raise and lower your house with a winch or a telescoping pole? They may be very shy the first year, so is this your first year? If not, how many years have you had martins? Manvel should be an excellent place for martins, so if you have been trying for a couple years, then you may have too many trees at your location...we need more info to evaluate your problem..I would think that if you have a nice open location without many trees, that your house should be overflowing with martins. Another possibility is that you may be allowing starlings & sparrows to build in your house.

I may need to look you up, sitting around a fire, drinking beer, and making barbecue sounds like fun to me....Oh yesss...

[Guest]

Emil.... I do not know you personally but I am glad you are back! Hopefully nice and rested.
My house (Nature House MSS-12 w/ SREH's) is in a pretty open location and yes, this is my first year. This pair appeared on March 19th. They have others that come and go. Another ASY male regularily and today another female...not too good on identifying the year of the females. Several PM's fly over but do not seem to stay although I can hear my ASY male calling out to them.
I do have a sparrow problem and I know how you feel about this so let's just say I clean them out on a daily basis. Please do not write me off because of the sparrows. They only try to build in two of my 12 compartments and my PM pair have chosen theirs already. It is very hard to convince my 9 year old daughter that killing these birds is the 'right' thing to do, especially when I preach "compassion to all living things" to her on a daily basis.
I did add some mud and pine straw to the PM compartment and the next time they came around they moved to the other side but the same spot, upper middle. I have seen the male go in but the female seems to have trouble. No nesting material noted.
Anyway, I was also wondering if perch space could be a factor...should I add one of those star looking things?


you should have been here tonight....beer and barbeque (pork shoulder and ribs) Yumm! I'll let ya know next time--maybe you can come kill my sparrows for me while my daughter is at school???

dbroussard...it is so frustrating isn't it?? Just build a nest already. Florida already has cute little babies!

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Holly, perch space is not a factor, but maybe you have slick floors on your housing..some people attach the non-skid tape to the area near the entrance on both sides (the kind of tape that you put into bathtubs and showers so you do not slip)...Hope the martins start building nests and stay.

[roblrich]

Holly, perch space is not a factor...

I totally disagree that perch space is not a factor when attracting martins. I have observed this spring that martins will actually forget unit fidelity and change gourd racks if better perch space is available. There has been at least two threads regarding perch space and martins on the forum the past two weeks. Take a look when you have time.

But if you have two pair of sparrows already living in the house, you have bigger problems than "perch space". They have got to be removed somehow or way.

[Guest]

... I do have a sparrow problem and I know how you feel about this so let's just say I clean them out on a daily basis. Please do not write me off because of the sparrows. They only try to build in two of my 12 compartments and my PM pair have chosen theirs already. It is very hard to convince my 9 year old daughter that killing these birds is the 'right' thing to do, especially when I preach "compassion to all living things" to her on a daily basis. ...

It's possible to have HOSP and PMs living in the same house, but you'll never get a good colony going with the HOSP there.

Tearing out the HOSP nests might also cause the male HOSP to go on a rampage, the so-called Male HOSP Revenge Syndrome.

You don't have to kill the HOSP, though. I use the Trio Spare-O-Door trap on our Trio Grampa house, and whenever I capture a HOSP, I trim the five outermost primary feathers. I've heard others trim the tail feathers (never done this myself). Whichever method you choose, the temporary loss of these feathers makes the HOSP lose interest in nesting in the house and bothering the PMs.

Capturing and trimming the female is fine and good. But when you capture the male and trim his feathers...that's when you know you've nipped that problem in the bud. At least, until the next HOSP pair try to set up shop.

If lethal control measures turn you off, or isn't an option, I strongly suggest you consider non-lethal feather trimming. You'll protect your PM chicks, and not have to tell your daughter you had to kill something.

[DAKdude]

Hi Holly,

I do know that martins like to visiting neighbors and checking out other martin setups like a nosy couples visiting all the local open houses to see how everyone else lives. ;-) I have seen birds that I recognize (SY males with distinctive patterns or birds with missing feathers or other feature) visit neighboring martin houses, even ones without other martins. Sometimes I will see a few extra birds come in the my resident birds in the evening but then fly off to wherever they live before nightfall. This could be what is happening at your site. I have noticed that some of the martin houses that martins visit but don't nest in have nests the following year. At least that has been my experience.

As for fire, I am not sure about open flames but last year I had a house fire and the firemen pulled up just below my martin house and dragged hoses around the pole. Lots of noise, sirens, flashing lights etc. The other thought besides I hope my house doesn't burn down was "I hope this doesn't scare my martins away and they go flying off into the night never to return." Well that didn't happen. They all stayed in their house throughout the whole episode. And my house didn't burn down so that was good too. (We just had to live an a hotel for three months while repairs were made but at least my martins were okay.)

Good luck
I hope you have a wonderful martin season.
James

Good luck

[John King]

All good post and I do agree with all but no one came up with hanging a couple of gourds from the bottom of the house.

[roblrich]

When your daughter is at school, put a glue trap directly in the center and top of that tunnel of the HOSP's nest (in my experience, martins will not enter a cavity where a HOSP's nest exists). Make it look like a dark black space in the center of it and have it placed when they enter, they have to step in it. Within 20 minutes you will have caught one of each pair, and hopefully the male as if you get rid of the males, the females go away.

Then place the trap and bird in a trash bag, tie the bag up airtight (hitting it against a tree or pole is optional), then put it in your outside trash. Problem over.

I've caught two this week this very way. First time I got the female. So I disposed of her, tore out the nest and waited for the male to find another mate. Three days later, he had, they started rebuilding a nest, I put another trap in place, and wham, this time I got the male. Ain't love grand...

Good luck. And keep an eye on the house while the glue traps are in place. I don't as watched water never boils. But I have lots of experience at this technique, and am confident in doing it.

[Guest]

I had thought of putting up a few gourds. Will the MSS-12 hold them? Am I right to put nesting material in there to help them out?
I will also put some tape down because, like I said, I have noticed my female seems to have trouble getting in.
I am glad about the fire, we sure do enjoy sitting out there.
James, thank godness your house was OK.
Well, I will make a few improvements and hopefully they will start building soon.
Thanks for all the help so far.

[~Patrick~]

Holly,

I have 4 Supergourds hanging under a 6 compartment Trio house (so old I don't think they even make this model anymore) and it holds them fine. I did, however, brace the botton with some 1x1 square oak strips. I do lower the house a little on these extremely windy days, more for my peace of mind than anything else. So far, it has worked out very well and I'm going to add 4 gourds to my MSS- 12 next year. As far as adding material to the compartments, it's a good idea. I did that for the first time this year by adding dry pine needles. The martins seem to like them a lot and it gives a good base to what they finish the nest off with, especially for the inexperienced SYs that sometimes build flimsy nests. I also added plastic mesh canvas, cut to size, to the bottom of each compartment. I use excluders and was a little worried the aluminum sub-floors would block an entrance. Also, the cold aluminum at the botton of a thin nest isn't the best situation for eggs or nestlings and the mesh gives excellent traction. I am also going to add tread tape. My martins have always been able to use the SREHs but they do have to scramble sometimes to get in. Might as well make it easier for them.

Best of luck,

Patrick

[Guss P O'Brien]

Purple martins seem very tolerant of humans and human activities. Where I grew up there as a fireworks show on Jul 4 at American Legion Post #368 Van Buren , IN. They had a fairly large colony at the time. The fire works went off within feet of the houses- flashes of light, smoke, noise. They seemed agitated, but did not run off as far as I know. They probably thought is was a thunderstorm.

I think this may have been the first place I ever saw purple martins. Someday I'll go check it out and see if they are still there. Maybe the PMCA could send them some lit to get them on the program- colony management, martinwatch, scout report, etc. At the time it was an unmanaged colony, but I don't recall seeing any sparrows or starlings.

[Guest]

Holly - I don't think not enogh perch space is a problem. On my single gourd rack, the pms naturally perch on the arms. However, I have 2 friends that have pm houses and nothing to perch on except the top of the houses, and both their colonies are thriving. Hope things get better for you.




lanell