Turn off or leave on PM recording advice?

[Bill Pec]

On several occasions I have read PM forum members advising others, like myself, trying to establish a new colony to turn off their PM recordings and even to remove decoys when there is a single male PM trying to attract a mate or when there is a pair inspecting the new site. Frankly, this advice makes no sense to me, so would someone please explain the logic behind this advice or point me toward the "research" that supports this advice. From what I have read and observed, female martins are instinctively attracted to large, populous, successful, established sites where their instincts tell them they have a greater chance of attracting a proven male, avoid predator attacks, and safely raise their offspring. Those of us trying to establish a new colony know all too well the attraction a large colonies in the area has on the birds inspecting our new site. These successful colonies draw martins in like vacuums, never to return to our unproven location. It seems, to me, that someone trying to start a new colony would have a greater chance of attracting martins by first selecting a good location and then keeping up the allusion of a populated, successful site. I would think this would better be achieved by continuing to play recordings and using decoys, not stopping their use when a single male is singing at the new site or when trying to entice a visiting female to stay. I would think playing recordings would help the male PM better create the allusion and sounds of a successful, populated colony and help persuade the female to stay. I have read in the postings that the reason to turn off the recordings is that the singing of the lone male will do a better job of attracting females or that the recordings will interfere with his efforts by causing confusion. If these were true how does a singing male attract a mate in the confusion of a large noisy colony with dozens of birds singing? I think the more important issue than attracting a martin to the site is the keeping of the martin at the site once they visit, particularly the visiting females. By continuing the playing of recordings and the use of decoys we are attempting to create the allusion of a successful, populous, proven and safe site. More often than not we have all experienced female PMs visiting the new site for a while and then leaving. Why does she leave? I believe it is because her instincts tell her to find a better colony site with a large population of martins rather than staying with this lone, unproven male singing at this "empty" site in the middle of nowhere. This empty site is telling her not to choose this location. Telling her she has little chance of surviving predator attacks, little chance of selecting a proven male and little chance of successfully reproducing. So, I say make all the noise you can, play those recordings, turn up the volume and try to create the sounds and allusion of a 100 pair supper colony that tells the female that this "is" the place to be.
I would really like to hear the thoughts of others on this topic. For those of you who are trying to attract martins, remember, I am in the same boat as you. I am not in the position to give advice. These are just my opinions. When I left home a week ago I had a pair of martins visiting. I won't return for another few days and am anctious to see if they are still there. I did leave my decoys up and left the PM recording playing on a timer. If the birds are there I hope the decoys and hawk guard thwarted any attacks.
I suggest that my fellow beginners read the reactions to this posting and the advice of the experienced landlords on this site before making up their mind.
Wishing you all the best,
Bill Pec

[Bill Pec]

Spelling correction:
"Super colony" not "Supper colony"
Bill Pec

[Guest]

The PM's have very acute directional hearing.I have had PM,s dive on a Songbird Magnet device and swoop away right at the last moment.It definitely confuses them.I learned from others and my own observations that it is best to turn it off once the PM's have your site located and are within your sight.Now if they dont stay of course turn it back on to bring them back or attract others. They will do a good job of bringing others in with there calls and chatter if they take a liking to your offering.I would some times in early morning turn the device on and kept changing the direction of speaker orientation with volume hadley discernable to the human ear.This seemed to wake up the colony and attract early morning visitors.once you have 2 or 3 pair or a small group,I would put it back in the box til next year or give it to the wanna be down the road

[John Miller]

Bill

Your rationale about giving the appearance of a large colony makes sense, but I've seen the recording make a visiting male agitated..or just do a flyover and not land. I'd need to test more...the recordings probably help alert martins to a new site, but based on limited observations, I'd be cautious.

I do have plenty of experience observing colonies socializing. The martins all "talk to" one another, with a variety of vocalizations. Sometimes one will land and in unison you will hear five or six near by make a soft screechy sound in response...but they are looking at and talking with one another. The recording may unsettle them because it's not with them..it's just different.

John M

[djmains]

I have used the dawn song and have attracted purple martins once they find the place its up to them if they decide to stay or not I gave a copy of the dawn song to a neighbor once he played it one time he seen a purple martin flying shut the tape off and his colony got started I think it is very important not to play it at night martins like to come in quietly at night so they don't attract predators. I have a colony now and last year I had 19 active nest I think the tape might have helped but location is the key to everything if there are martins in your area your chances of getting birds are increased but the tape can scare or drive investigating martins away and my martins did not like the decoys so you can use your own judgement and good luck attracting these beloved birds.

[flyin-lowe]

I too have noticed that it will definitely draw them in but I also notice that they seem to spend more time looking for the source of the song then checking out the housing, and they will leave quicker and not spend as much time exploring my housing if I leave it on.

[Jeff Robinson]

Bill, most of us speak from our own experiences - not that we're experts on every situation, and FAR from it in my case. Guaranteed, you would probably find somebody else out there to totally support your logic (sounds good to me too), but it probably did not work that way for most.

When trying to "start" a colony, my experiences matched those of senior members who advised me - once you have a pair spending a lot of time checking you out, turn the music down, then off and let the male or pair(s) do their own work. Now you might look at my profile and say, well, I only had one pair the first year, and two last year, but very few start out gangbusters, unless you're very close to the Gulf Coast and near a roosting area maybe.

As for the decoys, even this year when I was starting the season and hoping to breakout into a larger colony, I continued to watch "early" female martins zip, zing and squak constantly at the decoy, taking numerous days to settle down and pair up/stay overnight. I took it down until I had my 3d pair and witnessed my first early morning Coopers visit. Now that my colony is well established with several pairs, I haven't witnessed a single martin, not even newly arrived ones, worrying about that decoy. They're focused on nothing else but the maddening sounds of multiple martins and constant jockeying of several males welcoming them to their colony. In this case, IMHO, the decoys are the least of their attention. Let us know where you're at and good luck!

[Bob Buskas]

Bill, in a natural colony, the adult males only dawn sing at dawn for an hour or two. More is not better. But I would suggest playing a PM chatter CD during the day light hours. It is the recording of a natural colony during the day. Not too loud, just so they can hear it. normal radio volume. Too much too loud also attracts predators like Hawks. So only too peak their interests and thats enough. This is from my experiences.

[Jeff Robinson]

Bill,
I enjoyed your earlier post about supplemental feeding. I'll be out early in the morning, probably in the rain (ho-hum), trying the egg tossing again. We've had several straight days of rain, with very few extended feeding periods, and two more days of rain forecasted for this weekend. I put crickets in their entrances this evening - watched one female with 5 eggs in nest appearing to scoop them up as she went in.

[Brad-AL]

I am sure not an expert, but I will tell you my experience with the Dawnsong and Chatter CD's. I tried to start a colony at a house we lived in in 2002. I got 2 pairs of Martins the first year, using no attraction techniques. I knew nothing about Martins. I used small gourds, cut crescent holes directly into the gourds. It took the first male to arrive 3 days to gain access to the gourd. He was committed to starting a colony. About the time my colony started, I found the PMCA website. I read EVERYTHING on here and tried most of it. The first thing I read was that you needed to use the DS/DC recordings to make a colony grow, or to start a new one. The next year my gourds were much improved. They were larger and had tunnels and porches (they were Martin magnets) I also had a powerhorn and CD's ready for when the birds started returning. Incidentally, I decided to start a colony at my parents farm that year too. I put up one gourd rack out behind one of the barns. The only thing I used there were the Martin magnet gourds with SREH and tunnels. I started playing the CD at home and a ASY Martin showed up. He flew around, dive bombing the decoy's and made a strange vocalization that I hadn't heard before. After being a landlord for several years, I learned that the vocalization he made was an aggitated one. Almost an alarm call. We moved to the farm the next year. The first year at the farm I got 4 pairs and some SY males. No CD's or decoys. The second year at the farm, no CD's or recordings I had 33 pair, the 3rd year at the farm I had 67 pair, then 99, then 107, then 109. Last year I removed one pole of 22 gourds, so of course my numbers dropped to match the gourd count.

That's not scientific experience, but it's practical experience. If you want to play the CD then don't worry about what others say, play it. I look at it this way. Martins are pretty smart. They can fly to Brazil and back to the same gourd without a map, compass, or GPS. Man can't do that. If you were shopping for a house, and you went to a nice one and heard 100 peoples voices while you were there, and saw two department store manikins standing around, would you buy the house? What's natural about having a recording of a Supercolony playing at a new site with one or two gourd racks or houses and a few plastic Martins sitting atop the poles? Unless you are in an area that the closest colony is miles away, the Martins in your area know in a few days when a new colony site has been erected. The same as you could spot Martin colonies flying slowly 500 feet above the ground in an airplane.

One thing I do know for a fact, you will call in ever hawk in your area with the Dawnsong/Daytime Chatter CD.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I am not a fan of playing them, I would say they cause the martins to look that way, they may even land, but a martin will not stay because you are playing a dawnsong, or chatter. If they like your location, they will stay in spite of you playing them.

They do attract hawks, no question about that

[T Seber]

Everyone needs to do that which pleases them in their own colony So my advice would be do what you believe in.

My opinion is that Brad and Emil are spot on in what they say and I agree 100 % having had the same kind of experience. I know many swear by chatter and dawnsong and some of those who do are pretty good landlords themselves. I believe you will find most of the really seasoned, tried and proven landlords will tend to echo what Bob,Brad and Emil say. I know those are the exact things I would say using almost the same wording..... smile Yes, I tried both in years gone by and saw the same exact things, Bob saw, Brad saw and Emil saw

[Guest]

in march of 2006 i put 8 gourds i had grown on a pole, i never saw a Martin untill the middle of may AFTER i got the Dawn Song CD and started playing it. on june 1 that year i had an adult pair nest and fledge 3 young.

[Bill Pec]

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences and advice. I'll keep trying to attract my first pair of PMs by playing the daytime chatter CD between 10am and 4pm using a radio set to a low volume. I can see where using an amplification system may cause distress, causing the martins to leave the site. The low volume CD I played did not seem to have an adverse affect on the birds nor were they bothered by the decoys. I stopped playing the CD and removed the decoys for a few days just to give it a try. I will replace the decoys for hawk target practice later. After turning off the CD and removing the decoys the visiting pair left and have not returned. There are too many variables to determin if turning the CD off or removing the decoys contributed to their leaving. I think the main reason they left was the aluminum house became too hot in the 90+ degree heat that we had for two days. I'm taking steps to better insulate and vent the house and now that the local TSs are nesting I'll hang some gourds. Hoping for better luck next time.
Again, thanks to all,
Bill Pec