Manitoba Martins Love SREH entrances!

[Bernie Nikolai]

Last year I put up this Buskas 611 house as a gift at my sister's place in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In checking with the local purple martin club, I was told nobody in Manitoba uses SREH, and they doubted they would work or that martins would use them. However, since SREH entrances are are so well received by Alberta martins in my neck of the woods, I could think of no reason they wouldn't be successful elsewhere on the Canadian prairies.

This afternoon my sister called excitedly saying "3 pairs of purple martins arrived Friday (May 20/06), and are busy all day today bringing in straw and sticks making nests"! She said the martins were having no problem at all entering the crescent SREH entrances, but were totally ignoring the round entrance plastic gourds hanging from the bottom. These gourds are insulated with Great Stuff insulation inside, and spray painted with dark green Krylon Fusion paint inside to darken the interior.

I find this really interesting for a few reasons:

1/ SREH entrances are unheard of in Manitoba. NOBODY uses them, except for a very few just starting to experiment this year. Yet 3 pairs of martins chose this Buskas 611 to start a brand new colony, and easily and readily enter the SREH entrances. So if you can start a brand new colony with SREH in Manitoba, you can start one anywhere with these entrances.

2/ All three males of the pair according to my sister are "all purple". ONCE AGAIN A NEW COLONY IS STARTED BY ASY BIRDS. This is the 5th colony I've had a hand in starting in the last 2 or 3 years. In EVERY case the colony was started by pairs of ASY birds, never SY birds. I think this is because the large compartment wooden housing I use with 7"x12" compartments (for example this Buskas 611) is so superior, the adult ASY martins simply "move over" despite site fidelity. The SY birds won't even be in Manitoba for a couple of weeks or so yet.

3/ My brother-in-law watches the house, and said several times starlings kept trying to get in, but couldn't due to the SREH entrances. Had round entrances been used, starlings would certainly have nested, and chased off the investigating martins. SREH entrances didn't at all stop martins from starting a new colony here, yet round entrances would have doomed the colony as starlings would certainly have nested. Starlings love large compartment wooden housing, and unless you are passionate about constant control and monitoring the site for many hours a day, it is very hard to get a colony started with round entrances and large compartment wooden housing in most places.

4/ No attractants of any kind were used, no Dawnsong, etc. I erected the house this year in early May, picking a very open area near the house, and this alone obviously attracted the martins.

I guess the bottom line to all this is DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT YOU CAN'T START A BRAND NEW COLONY USING SREH ENTRANCES. Don't be afraid to use ONLY SREH if you want to. If Alberta and Manitoba martins use them so easily, and start new colonies with all SREH repeatedly, SREH will work ANYWHERE, period. SREH are probably the best single invention ever in the martin's best interest.