I looked across at my neighbor's yard, at the POS house he slapped together and put up last fall - a homemade wooden job, 3 stories high with utterly no way of opening it to do any inspection or maintanence, on a fixed wooden pole. No pole guard, of course. I mean, the thing isn't even painted white! It's raw wood, with a dark colored roof. But, it has what all martins around here seem to want - ROUND HOLES. Forget that it was covered with starlings not too many days ago, the martins don't care.
So, today, I caved in. I bought an MSS8 (Trio "Grandma) aluminum house. Came with pole, ground socket, door stops, dry subfloors, and a perch for the top. I will at least modify it to 4 6"x12" rooms, and I have ordered the replacement SREH doors. I will be away this weekend, so I will do the work on Monday. IF I get martins nesting in this house, then I will switch out the round holes for SREHs once I know I have them comitted to the housing.
I will convince these birds that I know what's best for them!
Of course, all you good people are thinking "Well, at least there are martins near you," and "With the neighbors having martins so close to you, it is almost like one bigger colony," and all that rot. Of course, intellectually I know that. And yes, I am glad to see them flying around me and to hear them singing. But, I want them to live at my house, in my gourds that I lovingly created for them. Now, that's not so unreasonable, is it?
Hopefully when the subbies (ever) get here things will change.