To lower or not to lower?

[donnak-Tx]

The meteorologists in our area are predicting a good chance of severe thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight, with even a chance of tornados. Do I lower my poles, and if so how much? I have two poles, both about 15 feet high. I have a SY male and female who seem to prefer one of the gourds, and yesterday I had a ASY male and a couple of females checking out my S&K house. I think one pair spent the night, and I'm noticing they are hanging around a lot during the day. If I lower the poles, will this scare them away or confuse them as far as finding it if they are out feeding? This is my first year and first martins, and first real threat of bad weather in my area. Thanks for any advice. I guess I am "certifiably purple" now- I've rearranged the furniture so we can see our martins, I watch early in the morning while I have my coffee,and manage to schedule supper time so we're around when they come in for the evening! EVery drive I make in the area, I'm always checking to see if there are martin houses....

[Mary Dawnsong]

Hi Vintage,

Congratulations on your new colony!

I recommend that you lower those 15' poles down to about 10' whenever high winds or gusts are predicted, and you can go even lower if necessary. Martins have no problem with lowered housing, however these two rules are critical:

1. The housing orientation must be perfectly maintained. If the lowered housing rotates even slightly, chaos and nest abandonment may occur.

2. Do not lower housing after dark. This will flush martins out into the night and they will not return until morning. This could cause the death of young nestlings who must be brooded by their parents during the night. It is better to lower the housing well before dark -and before the storm- so that martins can adjust to the lower height and take shelter inside.

Alabama landlord Chuck Abare has information on his website about the strength of martin poles relative to their height. I interpret his calculations to show that an 18' round steel pole will bend about 3 1/2 times farther in wind than a 12' pole. To read his article, click on: http://home.earthlink.net/~chuckabare/structrl.htm

Now, you will likely get replies from landlords who basically say "your poles should be strong enough that they don't need to be lowered". They are right - we should all be using stong poles. However, some landlords with this attitude have been unpleasantly surprised when their "strong" poles were not strong enough. But regardless of the quality of your poles, you can make them immediately *much* stronger by lowering them.

Good luck with the storm, Mary

[klcretired]

Mary is giving you great advise, i would lower during the day, the PM's will return to it if you scare a few out during the lowering.

[Guest]

Hi!! I live in Texas also and watch the weather very closely during my martin season. When I see some severe storms approaching my area, I do lower my housing. Just this past week I had lowered my housing from 15 feet to about 10 or 11 feet, and they stayed lowered for about 3 days. After the threat of storms pass, I will raise the house back up. I lowered my housing when I got home from work @ 5:30pm, which gave the martins time to adjust, as they normally don't go to bed until 8:00pm. Like Mary suggested tho, do not lower the housing after dark, and make sure the orientation of the rooms remains the same.
All through my martin season I am lowering (and raising) the housing before approaching storms, if I am able. My martins have never had any problem with it. Good luck

[jmrogers-TX]

This is my 21st year having a Trio Grandpa 12 and I have never lowered my house in bad weather. The birds just ride it out! I was not a full time landlord over those 21 years. Just had the house out at the back of the property.

For the past two years, since we moved to a very small lot, I have been a full time land lord, nest checks, insect control and sparrow patrol.

I has been a very interesting and active two years. I'm really enjoying it since my colony is so close to my home that I can easily observe the martins.

[Mary Dawnsong]

Hi Jack,

That is a good point you raise. It is probably unnecessary to lower an 8 or 12 room Trio house to prevent a pole from breaking. Those houses are small and light and have very little wind resistance. Some landlords have described them swaying so violently that they were afraid eggs would break, but I don't know whether that's much of a risk.

Where you run into problems are in exposed locations with larger houses, especially those with gourds underneath, and with gourd racks. With such housing pole strength is critical. I once had a pole snap in half in a gust; the pole held a Coates 16-room aluminum house with 4 gourds underneath. Years later I had a gourd rack pole of schedule 40 galvanized plumbers pipe bend almost 90 degrees.

It is shocking for a landlord to watch housing crash to the ground when eggs and nestlings are in the compartments. I learned from those experiences and try not to overload my poles. That is also why my gourd rack poles are now double - each schedule 40 plumbers pipe has an inserted smaller diameter schedule 40 pipe. Yet I still lower my housing when strong winds are forecast. I have seen 100 MPH straight wind on this lake and doubt my poles could stand up to that. Lowering housing is cheap insurance and provides peace of mind.

My best, Mary