Many years ago Bob, my next door neighbor, established a satellite purple martin colony at our local garbage compactor site in Longstreet, Louisiana. We call it the “dump colony”! This colony is about three and a half miles from our two personal martin colonies.
The dump colony has been a productive one and has gone through many changes in housing types. We have used natural gourds, Super Gourds, Trio aluminum houses, and Bob’s own aluminum designs. The martins have accepted all types without fussing. The housing is placed outside the fencing which encloses the trash compactor machine.
This year our dump colony has been completely re-done and the martins have adjusted beautifully! We eliminated two gourd racks of Super Gourds and two multi-purpose poles with some older Trios and Bob’s house designs. We substituted a new “quad-house approach with four Trios” on a three inch square aluminum pole and my old Trio Castle for all the other housing. Each Trio has been modified into six compartments for a total of 24 cavities in the quad-house system and the Castle has 12 double nesting compartments. This resulted in a downsizing of the colony from 64 cavities to 36. However, we may add another housing system next year.
Bob created the quad-house design by using aluminum square tubing to create cross arms. Then he bolted the four Trios to the arms using metal channel. The arms are attached to a square aluminum hub which slides up and down on the pole using a brake winch. We used this same design at our now gone Lowe’s colony in downtown Shreveport, Louisiana. We will most likely start consolidating houses in our other satellite colonies into the quad-house designs to eliminate multiple pole systems.
The Trios on the quad-house system are probably 30 or more years old and they are still raising martins. We re-furbish them as necessary by replacing old parts and modifying the compartments and entrances. All the compartments are either enlarged ones or double nesting chambers.
Bob is not bashful and will stop by a person’s house if he sees a Trio that obviously will NEVER have martins. These Trios are often under trees, full of sparrow nests, or about ready to fall down. Bob asks the owners if they would be interested in selling the Trios and sometimes the owners give the houses to him! I just don’t “have the nerve” to do that, but Bob has gotten many Trios, including Castles that way!
All our satellite martin colonies use srehs, mainly crescent entrances because we can’t monitor these sites frequently and starlings tend to be more troublesome near cites/towns. The martins readily use the crescents and these entrances have almost completely eliminated starling issues though several starlings have breached some of them.
Time and time again we have made MAJOR changes to our housing at our satellite colonies and the martins have had NO problems adjusting. It is primarily the LOCATION that attracts and retains martins as long as you are using appropriate housing and keep starlings and house sparrows out. We can use houses or gourds and change them out completely each season and the martins fill them up.
However, we are planning to eliminate all our gourds and use aluminum houses only in the future in our satellite martin colonies. Martins in our area do very well in aluminum houses, particularly Trios and these houses are often 100% occupied.
The dump colony does have issues with house sparrows and Bob discreetly eliminates them when the dump is closed. We have also been using the Trio trap doors to catch sparrows and this works great. Also the martins aggressively defend their housing and can usually keep most sparrows out provided we remove their nests early in the season. A sparrow nest, which fills up a cavity is almost “martin-proof” and may prevent the larger martins from entering the nest. If martins can’t enter, they can’t become established and will not fight sparrows. Once a pair of martins moves into a compartment where a sparrow’s nest has been removed and the martins become bonded to the cavity, the martins usually evict the sparrows at our satellite colonies. I have seen cases in our satellite colonies where we removed a sparrow nest, even one with eggs, and the next time we visit a pair of martins has moved in and the sparrows are gone. These cases are usually early in the season when the ASY martins are returning back to their homes and these martins tend to be aggressive in their interactions with sparrows. However, the sparrows may still be able to secure another compartment that is not being defended by martins in the same house. There are usually several pairs of aggressive sparrows that eventually have to be eliminated via trapping or shooting.
We are really proud of our dump colony and though it doesn’t have a “glamorous location”, MANY local folks see the housing and martins. The man who manages the dump enjoys the martins and they keep him entertained. Bob even put up a “Purple Martin Sanctuary” sign nearby.
I was at the dump colony today and conducted a nest check to determine how many active nests we had. The quad house system is 100% occupied by martins now. There was one pair of persistent sparrows that have apparently been evicted by a pair of martins after we repeatedly removed the sparrows’ nest. So there are 24 pairs of martin in this system.
The Trio Castle has ten pairs of martins and I have eliminated several persistent male house sparrows via the Trio trap door system. There is still time for the remaining two compartments to attract SY martins.
Here are some photos of our dump colony.
This is photo shows the quad-house system and Trio Castle.
This photo shows the quad-house system. There are some martins on the houses.
This is another photo of quad-house system.
This photo shows Bob’s purple martin sanctuary sign.
