Help and opinion for the 1st timer

[Guest]

hello to all...
We are a 1st timer - we have a double decker 12 compartment house, that I have located per the instructions in our back yard,, I am located in Staatsburg, NY , ~ 70 miles north of NYCity.. On Monday last we noticed a few PM's flying around the house, we thought they were the Sub adults that we we looking for, and they were going in and out of the house for 2 days, then poof - gone,,, and we have only seen one more since,... I lowered the house and in ~10 of the homes are nesting material , but just the 1st say 10% ,, - Is it still early - or did thay move on to other "digs" ???

Any advice for the Greenhorn here would be appreciated.... Thanks, Mark

[John Miller]

Mark

A big welcome to the Forum.

Martins don't start nest building until a few weeks after they've settled in, so I bet another species deposited the nest material. Your guys were probably "lookers" and moved on, but if indeed they were martins, you're site can attract them and that's encouraging -- and so hopefully with another "poof" they'll return.

You should have time to attract sub adults, probably into early June, but New York landlords will know better.


John Miller

[CUL Lou~Mich]

Mark. It's very possible they just left for feeding. Around here, it's been rainy and nasty, so not sure where they would feed, but they may know of someplace to go. Good luck on yours returning. CUL Lou

[Kyle Gregoire]

Dear mhoban1, I believe the recomendations of the PMCA are to Pre- add nesting material to the compartments. White pine needles are the top choice. Check the archives or do a search for more information on this. And make sure of the identification next time you see them. Tree swallows look like subbies but are completely white on the bellies and are alot smaller in size. And watch out for starlings and house sparrows as these birds can destroy your chances of success, and should be eliminated. Its tough this far north, so if you do get them to stay, well done. So good luck.

[Guest]

PM or Tree Swallow ?? Kyle suggested that we are fooled - and Now that I see the pictures , I agree,,.we have Swallows !!

[Kyle Gregoire]

Dear Mr. Mhoban1, Tree swallows are protected by law and you are not supposed to harm or destroy thier nests. The soloution is to provide them thier own single nest boxes and let them establish in those boxes. Place the boxes within 25 to 40 feet from your martin house and do not open the martin house compartments until the tree swallows have taken the single nest box. Then they will defend a certain amount of territory around thier box and the martin house from other swallows, but should let any martins alone long enough to nest. There are some sites to go to for more information but i dont know how to post the links to these sites. Maybe someone who reads this can post the drugfreeworkplace link on how to control swallows for you. If not, go to the archives and do searches on tree swallows and keep reading. When you do searchs you ineveitably find alot of other useful info--- so read read read. Our time for getting martins is just about now until the frist week of june as prime time. I played the dawnsong last year and had the best non -nesting year yet. I would also suggest if you dont get martins, all the other birds can be alot of fun. I feed black oil sunflower seed ( 50 lb bags at agway, so its a little cheaper to do), put out sugar feeders for the hummingbirds and orioles, suet in the winter and nest boxes for tree swallows and blue birds,ect. I guess if you cant get martins you can always get the other birds, which are alot of fun as well. Its a hobby you can do at home and any age can do it. So whatever you deceide, good luck and have fun.