Questions as I hold my breath...

[AndyShutterbug]

Hi all.

I'm a landlord-in-waiting in the philly suburbs. I am holding my breath in anticipation of PUMAs this year. I'm actually a bit anxious and continually question everything I'm doing...wondering if I'm giving myself the best odds. I've been lurking and reading, but I still have some questions. As background, I'm in a residential area with ~2-3 acre lots. I've got a T-14 with SREH and 4 Troyer tunnel gourds. It's the right distance from the house with good flyways (very open). I've got 3 surviving decoys. This year I did NOT put them on the perch poles which was a mistake...I couldn't right them when they invariably got upset. This year they are on gourd/house perches.

1) How critical is the distance to water? I can't change that. I"m ~1.5 mi from a small river.

2) I don't have many HOSP this year so far (maybe because I stopped being a good bird feeder towards the end of winter). I do have traps on hand for in the T14 and on the ground. But no plans for Starlings. Currently there is one (or a new one each morning) camped out on the perch poles. He can't get in, but he won't go away. Will he keep martins away? I know nothing about pellet guns and doubt my wife would allow it, even if I wanted to bend any applicable codes. Does every (gunless) landlord need a vertical repeater trap?

3) I wait until the reports say birds are close and then put up the box (two weeks ago). All the entrances are open. Is it advisable to restrict the available openings. No starlings are getting in, but I might have to evict wrens eventually and maybe trap sparrows. If I'm supposed to close some off, should I tape a mirror to the opening??

4) Starting this past weekend, I've got the songbird magnet playing from 5am-5pm. I had it going earlier, but it may be more likely that I will make neighbors hate me if they have open windows and figure it out. A year or so ago my wife actually told my closest neighbor that we play the song. I wish she hadn't. I've got the magnet up on an old Heath pole (I don't use my starter 12-hole hexagon since learning more and getting the T14). I have a platform up there where I'll put crushed egg shells. The speaker is roughly pointed south. Last year I had one visitor and he landed on the platform and quizzically peered at the speaker for a while. Have people been successful with music just NEAR the box, or should I try to run power out to the T14?

5) On the topic of dawnsong, does anyone know if the songbird magnet plays that song or just random chatter. I've got both CDs and I think the daytime chatter is different. It would be preferable if the magnet played dawnsong because of how we use it. One year I tried to set up powered speakers playing a signal from a little MP3 player with ripped music files from the CDs (dawnsong first, then chatter). But the songbird magnet is so much more powerful at these frequencies (and easier). Since I have a choice in music sources, does anyone have a success story with just the songbird magnet?

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Andy

[ToyinPA]

Andy:
Water distance is fine.

Do you know of any colonies close by? If so that may increase your chances.

I would only open a few rooms that you can see from your windows. Keep the rest closed until you have some move in. This helps to keep the Sparrows & starlings out. One starling may not cause a problem. If you get several hanging around then you need to deal with them.

I would smear some mud (just a little) on the outside of the openings & just inside the cavities. This makes them look used to the Martins.

Pre-nesting with dried white pine needles helps.

Sorry I can't offer suggestions on using Dawn song. Hopefully someone will answer for you.

Best wishes,
Toy in PA

[Thais G]

Hi Andy,
I use the Songbird Magnet, but it is indeed chatter only. It is so convenient. I am sure the best would be to play the dawn-song in the early hours though.

I can't help much with the other questions - I am all theory and no practice since I am still a wannabe! Good luck!
Thais

[jhcox]

I used a couple drops of the gel type super glue to keep my decoys in the up right position. And if I were you I'd invest in a good pellet rifle for those S&S. good luck.

JHCox

[Greg]

My experience has been that the most critical elements for attracting purple martins are:
*Open site with no tall trees in fly ways
*Type of housing being offered
*Keeping cavities free of other species
*Playing the Dawnsong to attract visitors

I have started several martin colonies in my lifetime and this is what I have found.

Here in the south, it appears that martins are more tolerant of having trees at a closer distance than in the northern range. But hopefully your site is very open.

Purple martins love to be around water, but I think martins would gladly fly a mile or so to the river near your house. There may also be some ponds nearby that you don't even know about. Here in NC there are ponds and lakes everywhere so I have not ever really been concerned about water.

Large and deep nesting cavities are very attractive to martins, so your T14 should be a great option. I would consider hanging a few gourds underneath the house to provide variety in the options. Gourds are extremely attractive to martins in my general area and have heard others say the same thing. However, you can certainly attract martins to a T14 house with no gourds, so don't worry if adding gourds is not an option.

My experience has been that you can play the dawnsong anywhere near your site. I have never played it from a speaker on the top of the housing. I have played it from the ground in the yard and even from my back patio/deck and it has worked to bring the martins in. I don't have experience with the Songbird magnet, but you can listen to the Dawnsong on Youtube and compare the sound you hear on the songbird magnet. I think the Dawnsong or Chatter would both be useful because essentially, you are just trying to attract martins who might be flying nearby to stop and take a look at your site. Once you get a bird to stop, take a look, and determine he likes your site, he will do the work for you. I started a new colony this year by attracting an ASY male to my site and he has worked very hard to attract multiple other SY birds. I guess I haven't officially started this colony because I don't have any eggs yet. But it looks promising that I have 6-8 birds currently staying the night.

You should be seeing a major surge of SY birds starting now. Here in NC I've seen a large number of SYs in the past week, so they should be heading your way.

Best wishes!

Greg

[jerickey]

What is an SY? As far as that goes, what is the other abbreviations stand for?

[handyman315]

Here's a good snapshot of oft-used abbreviations and related information.

By the way, there are no dumb questions left on the PMCA website, i.e., I've already asked them all. Besides, PM landlords are first and foremost bird lovers, wanting success for us newbies and wannabe PM landlords. Soldier on!

https://www.purplemartin.org/forum/view ... hp?t=11367

[AndyShutterbug]

Thanks for all of the replies. I guess I won't sweat it about the songbird magnet. I'm just curious if those of you who remember your very first arrivals can remember WHEN you first noticed the birds. If it really pulls them in from their early morning migration, shouldn't I see birds when I wake up? Any visitors I've observed (and even the birds I first noticed who stayed to try to nest) were noticed in the afternoon.

I've got mud on the interiors along with pine needles. The house is a few years old now, so it's getting that lived-in look. I'll look into closing some of the doors to keep all birds on the visible side. I wondered aloud about that with my wife last week. We worried that a bird might really like the opposite direction due to flyways or sun exposure or something. We didn't want to risk making the site less attractive. (this is the sort of worry that I think all new colony hopefuls go through).

I'm also left wondering about how loud a Beeman R7 is. Time for some youtube research I think!

Thanks again,
Andy

[Mhoover]

I spotted my first arrival (SYM) about 10:00 checking out the compartments in my martin house after three years of trying. He seemed to claim the upper left compartment within an hour of flying around and then looking inside the compartments. He then left and within an hour brought back three more SYMs that flew around and around overhead without landing before two of them finally landed. They went through the same procedure that the first SYM did at looking inside each compartment but never entered any of the compartments before flying away. He left right after them and brought back one of the SYMs that flew around close to the house but never landed before flying away.
He continued to bring in SYMs off and on for the next two weeks but he never spent the night here as far as I know before he left at the end of the two weks. I moved the martin house further away from my house that fall but did not have any visitors for the next two years. I spotted some flying overhear at times but none landed even though I was playing the dawnsong.
I finally got my first ones (two pair) on my eighth year of trying. I put up a gourd rack to go along with my martin house
the previous fall and both pair chose gourds to nest in. That continued through my second year of having martin and
in the last week of June last year i took down the martin house and put up another gourd rack. I had two pair claim gourds on it within a week. One gourd was almost immediately claimed by a SYM that managed to find a mate within the next week and an ASY pair also claimed a gourd around that date. The ASY pair began building a nest and then left after being here for more than a week. It was the middle of July at that time and really late for a pair to be nesting.
The SY pair did nest and fledged four and the last baby left the gourd on Aug. 25th.
I had a long martin season last year lasting from 4-13 to 8-25

[Greg]

I read a lot of people saying to only open up a couple holes. I have never done that, personally. I have always opened them all because my thinking is that martins are picky about direction, fly ways, and general cavity characteristics. So, I want to make sure they have options. If you are able to monitor for invasive species and remove nests or trap, then I would say open all the compartments. I also feel like if you are already going to be battling with sparrows or starlings or blue birds, at least visiting martins might have a chance when visiting your site if these other more aggressive species are trying to protect and dominate a cavity. Just make sure if you aren't able to shoot or trap sparrows and starlings, that you make sure you take their nests at least every couple days. They will eventually move on to somewhere else.

I can tell you about my year this year because I am starting a new colony this year. I put up my AAA gourd rack with 16 Excluder gourds in mid Feb. At first I had blue birds in and out of the gourds a whole lot. They started bringing in nesting material, but I pulled it out every other day for a week and they decided to build in my neighbors blue bird box, instead.

In March I had starlings swarming to the rack but luckily I had NO starlings able to enter the SREH holes! That was a relief. After about a week of a lot of attention from starlings, they quit trying.

I still saw no martins through March, even thought I would play the dawnsong some afternoons after work.

Then I had a sparrow pair start building. I took the nest out every other day for about a week and they quit trying as well.

Then, in the beginning of April I started trying to play the dawnsong every afternoon after work. I played it from a bluetooth speaker either hanging from the pole or from my back deck which is about 80 feet from the gourds. One afternoon I turned it on and within minutes an ASY male landed and perched on the top. He was there for about 20 minutes then flew off and came back. I began seeing him in the mornings before work and in the afternoon/evening. After a couple days he would show up with a female, but she seemed really hesitant to stick around. After about a week I saw him swoop into a gourd right as it was getting dark, so I new he was now spending the night. The female came around for at least another week before she decided to stay the night. The couple would show up with other birds from time to time and they would all hang around, but only the pair would spend the night. Then, in the last week of April the subbies started showing up. Over a two week period I went from 1 pair of ASY birds, to presently having about 10 birds spend the night.

My recommendations are to keep the sparrows and starlings out! And keep playing the dawnsong!

Good luck!!!!