Success, thank you and a question

[charlesgremillion]

I just finished a successful season; it was a big contrast from last year when my colony suddenly deserted their nests. This year I had five pairs,12 hatched and nine fledged.
I owe a great deal to members of the forum for the advice I was given last summer, namely House Sparrow control, taking down nearby trees and predator guards backed up with bird netting. And I attribute this season's success to all of you.
I have a question concerning predator guards. I use S & K Tri Poles, but when I attached my baffles 48" from the ground and then bird netting over the baffles, I was unable to lower my poles for nest checks, without help which I don't have. Is the rule of thumb 48" from the ground an absolute?

[Birdiegirl]

Hi Charles,

Congratulations on a successful season- so happy they returned for you! I am new to this hobby, but the way I understand it, predator baffles work especially well for mammals and sometimes snakes- and that the netting is the 'backup' in case a large snake manages to clear the baffle. I believe that PMCA recommends 48" based on their studies- the higher the baffle, the harder for a ground critter to reach and get leverage to climb. I had tri tel poles when I started out, so I understand your dilemma with the pins- you simply can't lower the poles with the baffle in place. One good option is to buy or build a removable baffle- one that you can take off the pole and set aside before lowering the poles to do nest checks. I'm not sure if there is one made specifically for the tri tel pole that you could purchase, but there are threads on this forum that talk about how to build your own. We are second year landlords. Our tri tel poles were damaged by straight line winds last season, so this year we changed to round steel poles and built removable baffles and netting support using suggestions on this forum. I'll do a little digging for the plans/link- maybe others on here already have them handy to post. There is a wonderful landlord named Kathy Freeze that did a youtube video on how to make a removable support for the snake netting to fit above a predator baffle. We followed her advice and use them on both our poles this year. Not sure I can link it here, but search 'constructing snake netting protection for your purple martin housing'. Both of these are GREAT winter projects- good luck to you!

[C.C.Martins]

I just finished a successful season; it was a big contrast from last year when my colony suddenly deserted their nests. This year I had five pairs,12 hatched and nine fledged.
I owe a great deal to members of the forum for the advice I was given last summer, namely House Sparrow control, taking down nearby trees and predator guards backed up with bird netting. And I attribute this season's success to all of you.
I have a question concerning predator guards. I use S & K Tri Poles, but when I attached my baffles 48" from the ground and then bird netting over the baffles, I was unable to lower my poles for nest checks, without help which I don't have. Is the rule of thumb 48" from the ground an absolute?

I'm glad of your success! Congrats and wish you many more. I look at the forum as PMCAs super colony of landlords, everyone has an experience that makes us a tad bit better.
Tom