Is their anything i can do?????

[Aaron H]

Hello everyone.... My pair of ASY martins are trying to get their
baby's to fly, One came out yesterday, the other baby's wouldn't
come out, So the pair had the one flying but when the young one
came back to rest a hawk got it.

I have had no trouble with hawks till yesterday.
I guess it heard the young chirping. My area around the pole is
pretty open the closest
big tree is 100' away. I have two gourd poles up, I am putting up
some extra decoys on the pole next to the pole with the baby martins.
I hate to try and lower the pole with the young.

Is their anything else that i can do to help save the other baby's?
Also is their anything I can do before next spring to help protect
the martins from hawks?

That is if i get any martins back in the spring, I am afraid the pair
will not come back if they lose the rest of their baby's.
I am sure their are a lot of landlords that has had this to happen to
them before, so i hope to get some good information on how to
improve my setup.

Thanks for any information you can send on this.
Also I hope everyone is having a good martin season.

[Guest]

If you ghave the time I would get a good vantage point and watch for the hawk and try to scare him/her away.

dick

[Linda Reynolds]

Aaron, that must have been terrible. I feel so sorry that you witnessed that attack.

Hawks seem to know when martins are fledging, and take full advantage of the situation. It is always a concern, but there is little you can do to avert a hawk. We use noise control, and others use owl guards or hardware cloth to protect fledglings on the porch or racks.

Nonetheless, I am sorry you had to experience and witness this attack. I cannot provide a solution. We use air horns, but have a sizeable colony that does a pretty good job of averting attacks. They do not always win, but they always give it a good try.

[klcretired]

Aaron
one thing you can do to help is put up several PM Decoys around your Housing/Gourds , The Hawks usually go for the slowest Martin IE: Decoy!!!
this gives the real martins a chance to bolt to freedom
Hope this helps

[Aaron H]

I want to thank everyone for their replys, I will surely try all
the good information i have received.
IT's always bad to here that a hawk or anything else has gotten
into your colony, but it sure is tough when you have a small
colony like i have at this time. Hopefully the rest of the young
will make it.
I noticed yesterday evening that only the male was feeding the baby's
in the gourd, the female was no where around, Then about 30 min's
before dark she came in with the SY male an one of the young ones.
They stayed a few min's then she took the young one somewhere
safe i guess, the ASY male stayed with the other young, Maybe the rest
of the young can get out today an enjoy the great blue sky above.
Thanks again to all that sent a reply.

[pugsleyhall]

Aaron,

Sorry about your loss, good luck in getting that hawk away from your colony.




Melissa

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Usually you cannot do this, but if you can cut down some nearby trees, that would make it harder for the hawks to sneak up on the martins. Martins like wide open sites because of hawks.

[Brad-AL]

Aaron, in addition to the Martin decoys mentioned above, try a couple of dove decoys. Surely a hawk would prefer a nice fat dove to a skinny Martin. Move them daily or at least every other day or the hawk will get wise to them. It's probably a little early to find dove decoys at WalMart, but I bet you could find them at a local hunting store if you have one.

[Aaron H]

Hello everyone..... I would like to think everyone that left me a
reply on my problem with the hawk, I will use all the good information
you all gave me. Thanks very much.
I also have some good news to tell you good folks about, The rest of
baby's finally came out of the gourd yesterday, Their were 4
young flying with the parents yesterday when i got home,they were
really having a good time. and you better believe i was on guard every
time they landed on the gourd poles. Not sure i could stop the
hawk from getting a martin are not, but i sure would give it a shot.
Thanks again.