Three Martins arrived at the farm today. This will begin my 16th year as a landlord. 15th year at my current site. I still remember the anxious thoughts and time waiting and hoping and trying to get my first nesting pair, hoping they'd stay, worrying if they'd return the next year. I'm fortunate to have a really appealing site to host them so I got them my 2nd year at the farm. I would have had nesting birds my first year, if not for House Sparrows chasing them away. It was after that failure that I found the PMCA forum. I read, read, read and posted a lot too. I completely changed my gourds from the first to the 2nd year. I also changed the location of the rack from down at the pond, to the barn site where it still stands. I quickly jumped on the tunnel bandwagon after reading of the successes of Thurman Seber and Terry Washburn. The 2nd year I offered 16 tunnelled natural gourds. I got 4 pair of Martins that year, and 3 years later I got to that "coveted" Supercolony status with 102 pair.
I still remember my young daughter sitting in my lap watching the Martins. That young daughter is now a freshman in college. We built a house on the farm in 2007, and I put up my first gourd rack here, in my back yard before the house was built.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since my first year with Martins. I no longer obsess over them. Several things have changed since my first year. My gourds are now all plastic, instead of those hand grown, hand crafted Purple Martin mansions that I use to make. I find that I like the plastic Troyer gourds better than having to paint natural gourds and the Martins couldn't care less. They like a big, safe, dark gourd. They don't care what it's made from. I control predators, try to keep the Starlings and Sparrows in check and enjoy them being here. I'm really glad they're back. I hope all of my "old" forum buddies and friends are doing well. I am horrible at keeping in touch, so howdy.
I hope you all have a great Purple Martin season.
High quality plastic gourds with porched, tunnelled SREH are Martin magnets.
I’m in that 3rd year range of your great story but not the amount of birds you had , I keep trying and time will tell , thanks from me for your history in PM Landlording , have a good season again , Jamie from South Arkansas
Brad - AL ... Great to hear that your birds are back for another year.. Thanks for the story about your experiences and what you have learned through the year... It will help someone here, I’m sure... Enjoy.
Howdy.
12 or so years for me...I'm obsessing less too but enjoying as much. Will be speaking about them tomorrow at the St. Louis Arch at a bird event. We are fortunate to have found such a wonderful hobby. John Miller, St. Louis
Brad-Al,
We are at 13 years now and I relate to all that you said, especially about not getting so anxious anymore. We have learned so much over the years and each year brings something new. We had a very early arrival of two martins this year on 2/5 and not until yesterday did several more arrive. I now know if the first ones arrive and the entrances are plugged they’ll be back. In the beginning I stressed that they would immediately leave and go elsewhere. But our martins know where they belong and wait although if we see or hear one we are still out the door immediately to open some entrances.
We also use the Troyer gourds with tunnels and starling resistant openings. We started out with a Heritage Farm system and hung a few gourds underneath. After seeing the martins choose the gourds first we eventually switched over to all gourds.
We lost our first pair and their 10 day old babies to a rat snake that got past the baffle. I was heartbroken and ready to throw in the towel but several people on this forum encouraged me to stick with it. The next year we added netting along with the baffles which worked and we caught several rat snakes. My husband got tired of untangling the snakes and hot wired the poles. That was the best thing we did to keep the snakes away. However we still have netting and baffles just in case.
We’ve lost a few birds over the years to hawks, extreme hot weather (and some very experienced people taught us how to rehydrate should we experience that again), subbies pulling out or maiming babies (they were very bad last season), etc. but know as long as we’re doing our part to keep them safe, the rest is out of our hands.
Congratulations on your 15 years. We hope to follow in your footsteps
Thanks for the reply Sharon. I went with electric guards the 2nd year I had my racks up and to my knowledge I have not lost an egg or young Martin to a snake. I have my poles hooked to a 100 mile cattle fence charger, so anything that touches it, get's a big jolt. It did break my neighbors dog from peeing on my gourd rack poles. If I had only had a video of that.
Martin landlord since 2003. Currently offering 162 plastic gourds with tunnels, all with Conley II entrances with the Lewis modification. I have 24 Supergourds and the rest are Troyer Horizontals.
Ha, ha about the dog I realized how well the shock worked when I saw a squirrel go to the pole and touch it. He jumped about 2’ in the air as he did an about face and took off like his life depended on it. It was pretty funny.
I am new here, hello everyone this is my first night to get signed into the forum, i have visited before but never took the time to fill out the registration. i enjoyed reading everyones experiences over the years and sorta inspired to share a few of my landlord highlites, i am not exactly sure how long i have been a landlord, it was sorta happened by itself in the beginning, thowing up one of them cheap barn looking houses because i thought it looked cute, then forgetting about it. i noticed some noise one year, some sweet talking birds where chattering up a storm by my shop on that sad looking house, i went out and started talking to them, after they dive bombed my brite red shirt and they told me not to mess with the BIRD, i was suddenly interested lol, So now probably fifteen years later, i think i am a pretty decent landlord, i think i had 117 babies last year, i have gone to all 11 inch bio gourds after much wasted time on other housing, they do so much better in the bigger gourds, more eggs, more birds, easier to care fore, safer, all the good things, all of mine are on the tri, teli poles, this year i am putting up a fancy winch pole which will more than double my housing, i am looking to the future i guess, not having the strength anymore the lift those teli poles, father time and all. Over the years i have had hawk attacks, at least two snake attacks, the summer from hell trying to rid myself of satan sparrow. The mites, the weather so hot they would jump out. the good times make up for it, sitting in the evening with my coffee under the shade tree, watching them come in for the night, the last two or three just wont give it up, lol, watching momma and pappa bird drag a flegling off the porch and making him fly, so funny, just like teenagers for a few mintues, then they are all grown up. the worry is less now and the enjoyment more, i guess thats the payoff from the years spent learning what works. Am looking forward to the new season and how quickly the new housing fills up, will probably take a couple years to fill up 24 more gourds, once it is i will probably put up a second crank up and start retiring my tele poles, probably give them to some neighbors who i think i have piqued their interest in martin life, lol, good luck to everyone and i hope to check in now and then to read some stories,
Hi Brad,
I remember the trials you faced starting your colony. There has been much water under the bridge since then. I'm thankful to see each new year and like you, martins are just part of it. It's fun just wondering what day they will return rather than if they'll come. I remember Northern rough-winged swallows in your mail tube, did you ever have any more? I have several pairs of Tree swallows here and will be looking for the barn swallows now. Good to hear you and yours are doing well!
I am also in N. AL and while I am 99% sure I had a pair of mail scouts come through last Fri (16th) the weather was bad and they moved on. This is my 5th year of PMs and I look forward to the season but they are a bit of work. I look at it like a responsibility now because they need places to go, and they travel so far. Nice that they eat the bugs too.
Tbe wx sure has warmed up from that southern breeze. Had a very pretty female sticking her beak into gourds today. Then way above maybe 400-500', invisible to the naked eye but very visible with binocs I saw a bunch of what I believe were PMs, chasing a swarm of bugs. The season is on. I think this will be a buggy year in the SE and PM landlords will be rewarded.
2014 8 gourds, 3 pairs nested. Ended w/ 24 total
2015 24 gourds, 22 nests. Lotsa birds!
2016 24 gourds and good activity.
2017 32 SREH gourds. Great activity.
2018 40 SREH gourds. Good finish despite big storm damage. No more dangling gourds.
2019 56+ SREH gourds, all on 3/8 rods. Birds did very well.
2020 56 SREH gourds.
Good to hear from you Ron! When I submitted my scout report this year I looked to see if you had submitted yours yet. The mailbox with the Rough Winged Swallows nesting in it is at the house we sold when we moved to the farm. I don't know if they still nest in it or not. That was a pretty neat experience. I made some nestboxes with 2 foot long "tunnels" to see if I could get some to nest in them but never had any takers. All is well here, and hope it is with you too.
EDIT: Ron I failed to mention that Tree Swallows are now part of the spring scene here, in a major way. They didn't nest this far south until maybe 6-7 years ago, but when they started nesting in this area, they showed up in droves. The first year I had any nest on the farm I only had one pair, the 2nd year there were 2 or 3 pairs, then after that it has been hard to keep enough boxes spaced correctly for our Bluebirds to have a place to nest.
Martin landlord since 2003. Currently offering 162 plastic gourds with tunnels, all with Conley II entrances with the Lewis modification. I have 24 Supergourds and the rest are Troyer Horizontals.
and hot wired the poles. That was the best thing we did to keep the snakes away. However we still have netting and baffles just in case.
If I had only had a video of that.