planning first nest check today. ( first year with PM )

[Guest]

First of all my husband admitted he never cleaned out the house from last year. We have never had martins, and are pretty uneducated except I knew to clean out the house. We have had birds on the house in the past, don't know if they nested, were here mostly late last summer.

I am very anxious about disturbing anything in the nest. How do I know if anything is out of order. I do mostly know the compartments the birds are using now.

I think I have 3 pair building nests now, with one pair staying in more, maybe have already laid eggs. I have not seen any other birds at house until today, and a small brown bird landed on top and flew off. I am
assuming this is a sparrow, but is there anything else I should suspect and id before I try and eliminate the bird?

After all the cold and rain, I still have at least 7 of 8 birds here. One pair is intent on bringing in nesting materials, and another pair is hanging pretty close to the house, staying in more than out. The third pair is really 3 birds, with two, I assume young males, fighting a bit. Both are bringing nesting materials, as is a third bird, the female ( I assume).

Watching these birds can become obsessive!!! I want to know what they are doing.

I also have a pair of barn swallows at the house with 4 eggs in the nest, and a pair of house or purple finch with 3 eggs in the nest.

We woke up to lots of chirping early this am!!! Off to get a pole guard before I do the nest check. Lynn

[Donna - TX]

Lynn, Pole guards are good but I have found that you need bird netting to really keep the snakes out you can find it at Garden Centers. Even if you don't think you have snakes they are around. Make sure you also check for parasites.

Also, Good Luck on the nest check. And again Congratulations on your first year. Hope it's a Good one!!!

[CUL Lou~Mich]

Lynn. Please go to google.com and put in Bird Identification. There you should find a site that is Patuxent (Or close) go to that, then click on Old World Sparrows. You should find the English House Sparrow there. That plus the European Starling (Same site, look for it and click.) are the ONLY birds it is legal to eliminate. If you use a pellet gun to eliminate them, please make sure of your background. Don't want no neighbors windows, or kids getting shot. CUL Lou

[Guest]

I made my birds very mad today, but did confirm that one pair has laid 3 eggs, ( the pair with the ASY male. ) Several other compartments had nesting material in them, all on the lower level. Haven's seen any other birds on the house but will watch ( and carefully ID before turning my husband loose on it) ( he frequently targets turtles and snakes on the pond.) The birds were slow to return, but the pair with the eggs are back on the house. Should I expect some to fledge in about 12 days? LYnn

[Bob Flam]

Welcome

Don't worry bout the nest check and martins fussing. They get over it quick and will learn to trust you if you spend time with them.

Let your husband loose on them lil sparrow nasties..trap em...shoot em..what ever it takes!

Sadly sparrow and starling control is something you will have to do if you plan on keeping martins. Some areas are worse than others.

Check out the Archives and read up...theres all kinds of good info there. Management, housing, traps, predator gaurds...etc

Heres some of a post about a recent sparrow attack from Sigundo.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, Dave at S&K gave me some good advice on the sparrow problem... I think it would have worked. Sadly, when I brought the house down to prepare it, the sparrow had done his work. Any eggs I had are pecked, the martins are now gone.... from both poles

heres a link to the archives... http://www.purplemartin.org/forumarchives/archives.html

Oh...its around 45 days to fledge from time eggs are laid. Check out the archives

bob

[Guest]

oops, I meant hatch

And thanks to all who reply and offer help and reassurance

Lynn