How important is pine straw

[Steve Malone]

It seems like the purple martins kick out the pine straw and build nest with other nesting materials. The last two years I've been putting pine straw in the gourds and houses and it's not doing much good.

I have 156 compartments and average 90 to 95 pairs a year, but my colony is not growing either. I live right on a bayou and only half a mile from the Red River, so I know there's got to be enough insects for them.

I'm wondering if the "ready made nests" are really necessary.

[dhjohnson]

Steve,
I think it is important with the caviot that martins are diverse. Therefore, they like certain nexting materials within your demographic location. Mine prefer pine straw with a mix of coastal bermuda hay! Others also like twigs, mud and another conctions! The prenest is about reducing their efforts at building a nest, plus giving them a solid base to configure their final efforts! Adding that is is warm insulation for early arrivals, clean, and free of mites!
Good Luck in 2015!
Debbie

[Louise Chambers]

Steve,

You don't have to put anything into the compartments or gourds at all, but many landlords do, using straw, pine straw/dry pine needles, etc. A PMCA study that we did years ago offered returning martins a choice - they could use a clean, empty room or a room containing last year's nest, which was deteriorated and might contain mites and fleas.

They chose old nests - maybe because PA in April is still pretty chilly? So we started putting clean dry material - cedar shavings at that time - into the empty rooms. Many landlords have found they like pine straw best because it does not absorb moisture and stays in place well.

If your martins keep removing it, you could put a pile of it out in an open area, or on a raised platform. We put out dry oak leaves for the martins here in south Texas - they go nuts with those. We also put some pine straw into gourds to begin with. I guess your martins will tell you what they like.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Steve,

Good to see you on the Forum! Bob and I need to start checking on our satellite colonies. We really appreciate all your efforts in managing the one near your business.

I have been building pre-nests of pine straw for many years and the martins do great. I have never seen any martins throw out the pine straw. The martins tend to add some small sticks, mud, grass stems (not blades) and of course plenty of leaves, mainly oak to the pre-nests of pine straw.

However, martins will build their own nests and pre-nests of pine straw are not necessary but they have been well accepted in my martin colonies. I mainly use full length pine needles but sometimes cut up pieces in 4 to 6 inch lengths. I try to fashion the pine straw into a martin like nest with a bowl that is relatively thick. Has work great for many years.

Perhaps there are differences in martin preferences for nesting material. What nesting material have you seen in the nests at your colony? If this material is readily available, I wonder if you try building some pre-nests of this material and see how the martins react. And maybe you don't need to build pre-nests of any kind if your martins prefer building their own.

We should be seeing a martin by the end of January.

Good luck in 2015.

Steve

[Dave Duit]

My martins utilize the pine straw in both gourds and metal houses with trays. As Louise mentioned earlier, it may have to do with location. Here in Iowa I feel the martin like the pine straw because the cool days on late March or early April the scouts prefer to come into a prepared pre-nested gourd.

[tim414]

Did you leave the leaf whole (oak) or crumple it some?

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Did you leave the leaf whole (oak) or crumple it some?

It depends upon how large the leaf is. For instance, they would not use a large burr oak leaf, its too large to get it into the cavity. On the other hand, they like to use a small 1 to 2 inch live oak leaf. So they prefer small leaves but they also like to use longer sticks that may be 4 to 5in long, just so they can get it into the nest. They usually put the small sticks on the bottom for structure, and the smaller leaves on the top so that they can cover the eggs with the small leaves. Their nest is usually quite strong and does not pull apart easily. They probably do not want the eggs or babies to crawl or fall under the nest, they are good builders. They prefer several different kinds of leaves and sticks to improve the structure. Pine needles alone usually provides all that they need so that is why pine needles may be the best single item. But, they prefer different items, even at our colony, some will not use pine needles. They all are different. For about 15 years, I did not provide any nesting material, the houses were emptied at the end of the season. The nesting material that we put into the cavity reduces the time that the martins are on the ground, which makes them less vunerable to hawks.

[Steve Kroenke]

Steve,

Here is a link to an article on using pre-built nests in martin housing. I wrote this article sometime ago and it has a lot of information about the subject.

http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... uilt+nests

Steve

[rrmartins]

Our martins throw out pine needles. Our martins use various grasses and twigs out of a cattle field. They then build a mud dam in front, and use Bradford Pear leaves off our tree in their nest. We put a few straw beds in early on to keep them warm on the cold nights during early spring.

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

I have always used pine needles in both my houses and gourds. I believe it is an effective attractant tool for those trying to get their first pair. I also believe at established sites it saves the martins the step of building a nest for the eggs. I have never seen any of my martins remove pine needles from their selected nest cavity.

I did learn from Steve K my first year about "soft" pine needles which I have done every year. Rake up your pine needles and spread them out on the road or your driveway. After a week or so of vehicle traffic running over the needles they become really soft. After they have been softened, rake them up, place in a large trash bag and they are ready to use when it is time to pre nest your housing. Softened needles are not necessary but they are a lot easier to handle by the landlord and possibly the martins like them also.

I use two to three good handfuls of softened pine needles in each of my gourds. After filling the gourd, I press down on the needles and towards the back of the nest, I make an indentation by rotating my fist in a circular motion. This small depression in the nest is where the females will lay their eggs. Here is a picture of how much pine needles I use for each of my gourds.

[Chuck4]

This year I am using both pine straw and oak leaves after noticing last year that all of the martins nesting in my gourds used oak leaves plus straw (needles). I like to set the oak leaves in the bowl part of the nest and build up pine straw around it. I also added more material per gourd than I did last year.

[avesrun]

I've been using white pine needles to attract my first pair, but this season may mix in a little cut up dried corn husks as was mentioned in an earlier thread on the forum recently.

Regarding the original post here; I too have questioned the necessity of prenesting. I give the martins instinct a lot of thought and have thought when they enter a cavity and see nesting material that they would instinctively "think" that the cavity is already taken. Others on the forum have wisened me up to the fact that in nature there will often be old/used nest material in martin nest cavities so really martins should instinctively be used to entering cavities with at least some material there in the spring. Furthermore, the prenest material will not stop aggressive martin wanting to nest; only thing that will stop them is another martin already using the cavity! So I will continue to prenest and not stuff too much material; only enough to provide some insulation and make things inviting.

P.S. Tim M. your shop looks too organized! lol
Tim

[Steve Malone]

It seems like the Red Oak leaves are very popular in my colony. Last year I noticed very early on that they were excavating the pine straw, so I raked up a bunch of leaves and they really liked that. I think I'll go ahead and build the nests again, but I'm going to add leaves with the pine straw.

[KathyF]

Some here just add to what I put in (2 handfuls of white pine needles), while others will throw some of it out and add hay straw and other twigs and some will even build a mud dam too. Depends on the birds and whether they're new to my site, I think.

I add it mainly because, a) the gourds I use are so big, the birds could spend a month trying to build a nest, burning up much needed time to be egg-laying / raising young, and b) as others mentioned, it gives them a nice warmer bed when they get here in mid-March snow & ice!