Nesting Status of SY birds - Great Lakes area

[bwenger]

To all,

I left our weekend cottage on Sunday, June 2nd with a SY pair that had been around for 2-3 weeks, building a nest and bringing in green leaves. Since this is our 4th year of trying, we were very optimistic about finally starting a colony.

When we arrived this past Friday, the SY pair was no where to be found. More nest material and green leaves had been added since the prior weekend, but a pair of house sparrows had built a nest 3 compartments above them, in the same wing of the T14. This is the only thing that I can think of that drove them off. It is possible that the female changed her mind, but after 2-3 weeks, it seems that they were definitely committed.

I did remove one of our excluder plates and added a round hole to the T14 facing our cottage, and shortened the cavity to about a 6x6 area. Can't see what I have to lose at this point. I have a T14 with multiple SREH plates, 4 THG with WDC entrances, two home grown gourds with crescents and two excluder gourds with the excluder II entrances, as well as a Coates house with crescents. We also have a B&B for feeding, egg shells and nest material I am providing a lot of choices for them.

A question for everyone around the Great Lakes area, are the subbies still choosing sites, or do you feel that the majority of them have by now settled down and are actively nesting?

I believe we still have a chance, and we're still hanging in there, but wanted to get the view point of more knowledgeable landlords that can see what is happening around your sites, or from past experience.

Would appreciate all input.

Bill

[flyin-lowe]

I haven't had any stay but I had some new subbies show up last week in Indiana. Also, just curious why did you shorten one of the cavities to 6x6, the only plus I've heard of shallower cavities is they are not as appealing to starlings but it sounds like you have the SREH covered.

[bwenger]

Sorry, I posted this without reading some of the prior posts from PA.

[bwenger]

Flyin-Lowe,

I have had a great spring, with plenty of visitors and actually having 5-6 birds staying for a week, but I believe they may have been migrating martins. I fed them over a cold snap, so hopefully they made it to there destination in good shape.

I guess I am panicking over losing this SY pair after several weeks. It has been mentioned that having a round opening could do the trick as far as getting a pair to stay. By making the cavity smaller, I can hopefully avoid having a starling take the cavity.

All of the other cavities have a variety of starling resistant entrances on them.

Good luck to you.

Bill

[Guest]

No birds here outside of Chicago. A few flybys and 2 landed for a very short time. I guess they didn't like the setup. T-14, 2 natural gourds all SREH. Next year I might try a few round holes and fight off the starlings. Playing dawn song from 4am to 8am, chatter from 8-1pm. Don't see any members in my area reporting here so I don't know if the SY's have come through or not. Fingers crossed.

[oneidalaker]

Bill, based on the last few years here in Central New York, the last eggs are laid by around June 16th. Theres most likely still some time for SY nesting.

[bwenger]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It seems like it will never happen, but all it takes is two birds, and it can happen at anytime, seriously.

I have developed carpal tunnel, since I have had my fingers crossed the last 3 years.

Bill