smoke and mirrors

lucky3 · Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:49 am

O.K. just mirrors. Could someone tell me if mirrors are used to help attract our birds, and just how, perhaps to do it. Thanks. Also, yesterday Feb. 25th I caught my first starling of the year in my repeating trap. I thought, very good, it's still working, but before I had a chance to remove the starling, a blue bird female entered and wound up down in the cage with the starling which attacked and killed her immediately. Moral to the story; the repeating traps are great, but must be monitored constantly. Just a word to the wise. Thanks.

Gobbler T · Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:54 am

The mirror thing puzzles me too! I don't see how that would work. If a male enters a cavity, he's looking for a female not another male. If a female looks in she's looking for an empty cavity, only to find another female in that one (so to speak)

lucky3 · Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:03 am

I guess, Gobbler T, that maybe one puts the mirrors around on the sides of the condo type housing to give the impression that this site is being used and must be a good place to move into. I'll try just about anything. By the way good luck in your mentorship endeavors. Any martins in your area yet, not any here. Usually about the middle of March in this area.

klcretired · Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:05 am

lucky3 & Gobbler ,
I never ever used any Mirrors ,what i always have done and this works extremely well is use Decoys atop my PM Housing and Gourd Rack along w/ playing the Dawnsong & Daytime Chatter cd's, their was a previous post about using Mirrors , you might do a search and find it.

klcretired · Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:07 am

I found the previous post about Mirrors

http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic ... ct+martins

lucky3 · Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:28 am

Thanks klcretired, I read the mirror posts, and found them very helpful. I do plan to try and use mirrors, maybe the mirrored tile that was mentioned. I have been using decoys and c.d.'s right along for a long time to no avail. Thanks again for the link. Good luck this year in your landlordship.

Donnie Hurdt MN · Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:35 am

I dont know if this means anything or not but two years ago when I put mirrors on one of my houses I got one pair of subbies to nest in that house. The next year (last summer ) I took them off and had no nesting pair. Wheather the mirrors had anything to do with this I cant say one way or another.
I did notice though, the that the subbie male did seem to enjoy perching in front of one of the mirrors and chattering and dancing around in front of it perhaps trying to chase that "other" male away.

lucky3 · Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:27 am

It's just possible that the mirrors "did" do the trick, and I have every intention of trying it. Thanks for the message, and good luck this year in getting your martins back.

jr 2 · Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:36 am

years ago they thought mirrows or shiney objects would distract starlings but i tryed it and it don't work;;;jr2

DornCounty · Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:19 am

lucky3 wrote:O.K. just mirrors. Could someone tell me if mirrors are used to help attract our birds, and just how, perhaps to do it. Thanks. Also, yesterday Feb. 25th I caught my first starling of the year in my repeating trap. I thought, very good, it's still working, but before I had a chance to remove the starling, a blue bird female entered and wound up down in the cage with the starling which attacked and killed her immediately. Moral to the story; the repeating traps are great, but must be monitored constantly. Just a word to the wise. Thanks.

had the same situation happen last year about this time. Luckily we were watching closely and got the blue out unharmed.

parkerdes · Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:23 pm

I'm sorry to hear about the death of your BB!!! That's exactly why when I put up a trap for starlings...I put an escape hole in the downspout just big enough for a BB to escape! I'm not home all the time to monitor my trap & I have wrens, BBs, chickadees, & titmice that are constantly looking for homes in my yard! I don't have a picture of the back but here is the front of my trap! It has caught every investigating starling I have seen at my site! I have spare-o-door traps on each of my houses to take care of the nasty house sparrows!
http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv10 ... 00f760.jpg
Not sure if mirrors helped me finally get martins but I used them along with the decoys & CDs!(KC was a great mentor!!!)
I also used a couple of mirrors on porches that I had purchased & used duct tape to secure in place that I purchased for almost nothing from Lowes or Home Depot...they were scraps & they cut them into 2x3" pieces for me.
It took me 6 years to have an ASY pair & then an SY pair move in to finally start my site in 2009 & was up to 19 pairs for 2012. I already have at least one pair back that came home on Valentines Day!
Here is a picture from 2012 of a mirror I had forgotten that is still up on one of my 2 houses. I think they do notice their reflection as you can see from the picture!
http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv10 ... 200008.jpg
Good luck & don't give up!!!
Lila

dsonyay · Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:13 am

Put mirrors inside the gourd up on the ceilings. It may help get them in the right mood.

I've not read about mirrors helping attract martins.. but I think I read somewhere that crows are attracted to them.