Martins Here

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guteart
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2004 8:08 pm
Location: Port Arthur Texas

Howdy, well they finally found my gourds, today 9 AM, I was in the back yard and I heard the martins chirp. I looked up and saw my first martin. After awhile there was two males and one female. I don't know what was going on but the were having a hard talk, like going at one another almost to the ground. My take both wanted the female, well here a picture of female watching the action.
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Female watching the action of two males
Female watching the action of two males
purple1 (Small).jpg (14.53 KiB) Viewed 2027 times
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Donnie Hurdt MN
Posts: 1723
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:14 pm
Location: North Prairie, MN

A good looking female and a good looking gourd! :) No wonder there is fighting going on! :lol:
PMCA member and Martin fanatic....
2011 A pair of subbies fledged three young but none returned in 2012 :-(
2015 One Pair of subbies came and stayed a few nits but got chased away by Bluebirds and Tree swallows. :-(
2017 0ne pair of subbies nested and fledged 4 young
2018 Tree Swallows AGAIN chased away any martins that wanted to nest :evil:
2019 Same old story................ :-(
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parkerdes
Posts: 417
Joined: Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:41 pm
Location: TEXAS/Weatherford

Happy for you they are finally back!!! How many pair did you have last year? Still hoping & praying my 2 pair from last year are just running late, too! I am so ANXIOUS about them!
Now hopefully you'll start getting lots of PMs as well as the rest of us! It's been rainy yesterday & today but I'm playing the Dawnsong & daytime chatter just in case!
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guteart
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2004 8:08 pm
Location: Port Arthur Texas

parkerdes wrote:Happy for you they are finally back!!! How many pair did you have last year? Still hoping & praying my 2 pair from last year are just running late, too! I am so ANXIOUS about them!
Now hopefully you'll start getting lots of PMs as well as the rest of us! It's been rainy yesterday & today but I'm playing the Dawnsong & daytime chatter just in case!
Well I am not to happy about last season, I only had five pairs. The gourds were full (4), and a pair took to the T14. I have two T14 and four gourds, since I put the gourds they seem to take to them and not the T14's. The picture you see was taken last season, since then I painted them white maybe that will help.
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Picture taken last season
Picture taken last season
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Louise Chambers
Site Admin
Posts: 6208
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:07 pm
Location: Corpus Christi, TX

It's pretty typical for the martins to fill gourds first, then spill into the housing, at least in my experience. Painting the houses white should help, plus will keep nestlings a bit cooler. Have you considered hanging gourds right under the T-14s? A good way to expand and encourage exploration of the houses, although you probably don't have to do that. I think you'll fill your gourds again and get more pairs in the houses this year.

Louise
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guteart
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2004 8:08 pm
Location: Port Arthur Texas

Louise Chambers wrote:It's pretty typical for the martins to fill gourds first, then spill into the housing, at least in my experience. Painting the houses white should help, plus will keep nestlings a bit cooler. Have you considered hanging gourds right under the T-14s? A good way to expand and encourage exploration of the houses, although you probably don't have to do that. I think you'll fill your gourds again and get more pairs in the houses this year.

Louise
Hi Louise, As a matter fact I am working on making gourds out of plastic coffee can. I have painted them white and will hanging them under the T-14. Will post later with photo of the home made gourds. Happy Martin Day
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