Kentucky Martins

[Homer]

Hey all,

New user here, longtime landlord.

In a nutshell, I’m between Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington. Put up first house 15 plus years ago. I have a very good location, birds are very cooperative. Scouts show up like clockwork last few days of March. They hassle me constantly until mid April when I put up the house/gourds. I hold off until then because the starlings are usually settled.

Six old plastic gourds mounted beneath a wood house I built myself, crescent entrance holes, mounted on a 16’ pole. Sparrows are a very minor problem, appear to be getting displaced by house finches. Starlings are a horrible problem and getting worse. They only show interest in the house, none at all in the gourds.

I have decided that when my martins show up this year they will find only the old gourds and nearby the PMCA pole and rack with all the upgrades: 3” pole, winch, extension etc. I’m going to start with 12 new plastic gourds with the intention to expand, hopefully adding another pole later on. Gourds only, no houses. The starlings have defeated me.

Lots of gourd and entrance hole options, has me unsure of what to do. Also, last year my colony abandoned everything in June, I believe because of a hawk. I talked to a guy nearby who’d had that problem also. LOTS of kestrels here, also red tailed hawks. So I also want to go with predator guards. Again, several options here. I am open to all advice and opinions, particularly if you live in my region.

Thanks in advance.

[C.C.Martins]

Good afternoon Homer,
Welcome to the forum!
Sounds like your going in a good direction with those upgrades.
So lots of SREH entrances to choose from. I myself like crescents with PMCA wing entrapment protectors added to the outside, however iv also got excluder entrances and martins are doing ok with them. No starling issues whatsoever with them. You will get lots of suggestions in regards to entrances, emil makes a good entrance, hes here on the forum.
As to your hawks. PMCA makes a good owl guard, but it can deter a hawk for a second.
Are you sure it was a hawk? Not a snake? Only reason I say that is that the martins will adjust their behavior to a hawk...come in way late, all at once, no socializing etc...but to totally abandon a site id lean to snake or something. Even whippy (forum member) had major hawk issues last year, he went right after it and harassed it enough to make it leave, but his martins kept coming back. He had a fantastic year last year despite early heavy losses, good landlord there!
So definitely SREH, owl guards on the gourds and snake netting for sure.
Again, upgrades to make them safer is the way to go, so your on the right track.

One PS: you will find life much easier with SREH. We too have starlings (not as bad as that). But I no longer worry about them, I shoot on sight but it doesn't keep me up. Finally, I like that you added the new next to the old system, they are weird like that, like to see their old site. Good call there.

[Homer]

I’m not sure it was a hawk. Around the time they left I happened to notice them harassing a hawk. But I’ve seen that before, and I’m sure it was normal behavior. It was also about this time—just as they were starting to build nests—that the starlings attacked with a vengeance. They’re always a problem, but I had never seen it that bad. It was the second go around of the year for the starlings and they were determined to use the house. Part of me wondered if the martins just gave up. I’d never had them pack up and leave like that. It was a bummer and I really was unsure what happened. This area is infested with rat snakes, and I know they climb. Some blue racers. I had always assumed that the height of the round metal pole offered some protection from snakes, but maybe that’s wrong. I will make sure to add netting this year.

[C.C.Martins]

Man sounds like you got it from all sides. Sorry! Tough going there. Truely hope this seasons better sir.
really do.
I watched a stinking hawk go for a greater grackle male today it could have had him too but they came right over me so I threw up my hat and it pulled up and away. I hope it moves on. Not a whole lot we can do....look for whippys hawk posts he really nailed his problem.

Starlings: you can put up a big nest box with a 2 inch hole so they can see them. Stick a van ert trap in it and you'll rake them in. Or buy the PMCA nest box trap-have 2 of them catch starlings like crazy.
Definitely SREH! Definitely, no doubt. Once you do that, problems are out of your martin house, occasionally one will get in but....

Ok, last snakes. I truly believe this was the cause of abandonment. Our satellite site is remote lots of snakes out there, one day one of the staff found a rat snake climbing a brick wall...it is a new building but it was using the very narrow channels between the bricks! 4 feet up, no kidding.
Its called bird netting, get some tomorrow, most garden stores carry it. 1/4 and 1/2 inch square, get both types. I say hurry cuz if you wait, life has a way of happening and then you don't or cant.
Look at the way Kathy freeze does hers, I copied her snake net and caught 3 rat snakes in days. They could have wiped me out....I had snake netting up, a lot of it but it didn't do any good. We lost 6 eggs and the pair lost out a season. I now suspect we lost more, could have lost the whole colony. Take no chances. I now believe that when we hear about the mysterious missing eggs, its not a big mystery.

Here is how she does it, real easy and effective. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yzxNIKFSLBM

I truly hope this helps you, there's just a little time. Also use the knowledge and be a mentor to your martin landlord friend. The martins and he will appriciate you.
Respectfully,
Tom

[brent]

Tom, did you mean 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch netting as opposed to 1/4 inch? Brent

[C.C.Martins]

Yes Brent! Geeze...getting old. Thanks man. 1/2 and 1/4. The first snake we caught would have made short work of 3/4 inch.

[Dave Reynolds]

... Homer ... C.C.Martins has good information in his reply’s to your post.. Snake guards a must.. Look around on the forum for other posts on building snake guards.. I put together some metal rods and lots of bird netting on my poles,, Have not caught a snake in it yet, but I know they are around.. I have lots of wooded area around my property, so get the netting up early and good luck this season..

Dave

[Homer]

Thanks, maybe I’ve been lucky up til now. I will heed the advice. I’m a little worried about them coming back next year since last year was a bust, but I know we have a lot of martins around here.

[Birdiegirl]

Hi Homer,

I'm a new purple martin landlord in central Kentucky (Scott County)- sounds like we may be in the same general area. I had my first real activity and one successful nest last year. I didn't see martins last year until May 1- and I was watching every single day!!! The two established colonies I know of close by saw scouts about two weeks earlier.

I don't think central Kentucky martin colonies have a chance without SREH. So far 'my' starlings can't seem to figure out SREH entrances. HOSP are less of a problem on my farm for some reason, but we're prepared to discourage them with a pellet gun if need be. Last year I put up plenty of nest boxes for bluebirds and tree swallows, they both were hanging around before any martins arrived. Chuck's purple martin page has some great advice on how to offer housing to keep swallows and bluebirds at bay- I can share that link if you are interested.

Where I live there Cooper's hawks and Great horned owls are the biggest avian predators, and black rat snakes are by far the worst threat from the ground. I am absolutely using predator guards with netting. I don't have personal experience to say they've worked.. my colony isn't big enough to have attracted attention just yet- but I'm not taking ANY chances. This year we are upgrading from basic barn housing and plastic gourds to a wooden T-14 and plastic gourds because the poles I have were damaged in a storm. I'll leave the a plastic barn up as not to confuse them too much- but hope they go to the T-14. I'd like to phase out the barn. My colony is tiny and just started- so I'm offering just about everything to grow my colony.

I'm more than happy to chat martins anytime you'd like, even though it sounds like you have more experience than I do! Feel free to message me directly. Good luck this season!

[Homer]

Yeah, pretty close. We’re in northern Owen. 2021 was year 17 for us. Our group never expanded beyond 5-8 pairs because I was just too busy to do it. Always had great intentions, just never happened.

I’ve used crescent entrances from day one. Occasionally a female starling would be small enough to get in, but never enough of them to matter. This year everybody seemed to be able to get in. I do not understand. I cut all the holes myself, and they are perfect. The starlings had zero interest in the gourds, but they could not be deterred from the house. Most years the starlings figured out quickly the dude with the pilot rifle really didn’t want them around. This year they didn’t care and overwhelmed me. Maybe the martins got tired of being in the never ending crossfire. I am completely mystified as to what happened last year that made the starlings so aggressive. I hope you have better luck with your house, but I am done.

Scouts show up the last last few days of March, the others follow within two weeks. With our group being so small the housing gets left unattended a lot. Everyone seems to spend the first 4-5 weeks out socializing before they get down to business. Many nights in May they come back from some dinner party I guess just before dark and go to bed. I’m nearing retirement and finally have the resources to expand the colony as much as possible and get weird about it, which I intend to do. Hopefully with a much larger population there will be strength in numbers when it comes to fending off starlings. And I will do everything possible to deter predators. Hoping for the best.

[Birdiegirl]

Hi Homer,

Yep- we're almost neighbors. There are a couple landlords we've met in Owen County and all have fantastic success using plastic gourds. I bet you have lots of takers this year.

Like you, the starlings on my farm could care less about gourds but love inspecting and trying to break in the barn style houses. I'm curious- are the starlings damaging the entrance holes at all- widening them so they can squeeze in? I've seen them do this with my bluebird and wren houses. We've worked pretty hard on this T-14- but expect to have to defend it from starlings and house sparrows. My husband retired last year and is now officially on starling and sparrow control. Work hours sure do get in the way of martin tending.

I guess I may need to pay more attention this year- if you are north of me and have birds, I may be missing some moving through and want to get my dawn song on earlier. Thanks for sharing that.

With new poles we will have to modify our current predator guards- I'm going to try a slightly different design with more aggressive bird netting. Probably overkill but black rat snakes are crafty and prevalent here. The farm stores in Georgetown both carry 1/2" mesh- possibly the 1/4", haven't checked recently but that is where we bought ours. There are some great design suggestions on this thread and elsewhere on the forum. Good luck to you this year- please don't send your starlings my way!

[Homer]

Update:

Got my upgraded 12 gourd system with the winch and all the bells and whistles put up mid-March. Just under the wire, as they usually show up about two weeks later. But I was worried, as our group is small and they abandoned my old set up before nesting last year, as mentioned before. Waited impatiently, was hoping nobody showed up because the weather has been so bad. Anyway, a male showed up this morning and came back several times, checking out all the new gourds in the process. And he came back this afternoon with a lady friend. Relieved.

Thanks again for all the advice and help.

[Jones4381]

Great news and enjoy your season. Kentucky is such a beautiful state and thank you for the update. (I love ya'lls bourbon )

[Robert Richerson]

I live in central Kentucky and starlings are a huge problem. I have well over a hundred gourds, all with SREH entrances. I find they are of little help, but I suppose if they keep out one fat starling, it is worth it. But if I was to do things over, I would use the old round hole Supergourds as I find them easier to trap. But if using round holes, it would be necessary to monitor your colony most of the day, so for retirees, like me, this is no issue. Several years ago, I was away one morning for about three hours, and had one starling break into a SREH, and kill the female martin and started to build a nest over her body. This starling, needless to say, didn't last out the day.

Edited: No, I would not go with round holes, even though I find them easier to trap. I like the porches on the SREH's.