Nite Guard Protectors

[Robert Richerson]

Anyone else use these 'Nite Guard Protecters'? I put up four in 2012 after an owl attack which I actually witnessed the tail end of at dawn and saw the owl take flight from the natural gourd it managed to tear down from a rack. I haven't experienced an owl attack (that I know of ) since. But I haven't been up at day break the past couple of years as I have been in year's past.

I would be interested in other's experiences with this product as this year, regardless of my health, I am going to give my colony every effort I can. I would rather rely on these than hiding the night chatter with white noise.

Please forgive me if a thread on this topic was discussed recently. I'm not one to search.

[cary-nw-fla]

How do you hide the night time chatter with "white noise"???

[~Ray~Gingerich]

I use 3 radios tuned to different stations in several locations throughout my colony, in addition to that bright yard lights and night guard lights....seems to be working so far. I have found headless rabbits with owl feathers out in the pasture

[Lawrence Berger~MI]

About eight years ago I could hear a great horned owl at the back of my lot in the neighbors evergreens. I put up four of these night guards on the top of my one gourd rack, facing all four directions. I haven't heard the owl since and I haven't had an attack either. I know its hard to prove something that didn't happen but that's my experience. I also leave the night guards out all year around and have not had one fail yet. I think the instructions say to let them charge and discharge all the time.

[AnnieM]

Ray & Robert, Good ideas. Have not tried the 'nite guards' but am thinking about using the outdoor speaker I used for dawn song and daytime chatter when trying to initially attract martins, but playing white noise instead on a timer from dusk to dawn. I found evidence (owl feathers on the ground and martin feathers in the gourd late last summer) after most nestlings had fledged. My martins also exhibited the behavior Steve K. describes in the article below where martins would enter their nests in the evening, but then when it got dark, they would leave and not return. I didn't understand why that was happening until I reread Steve's post.

I'm also looking at the gourd rack owl guards on the PMCA Shop. The first year I saw no evidence of owls, but as the colony grows, I guess there's more noise and it begins to attract more predators.

Robert, you mention you don't like to search so here is a link in the purplemartin.org forum archives where Steve Kroenke discusses the topic in detail:
http://www.purplemartin.org/forumarchiv ... owOwls.htm

[tonyg]

I use Ray's method also! But I don't use these type of lights.. So far so good.

[Ron Shaffer]

I've used them the last two seasons...and my favorite local classic country station....so far so good, with lots of guys from the plant asking me...What's with your red flashing lights????

[Mike1624]

Robert, I've been using four of the lights for 2 years and have not had an attack. Previously, before I installed them, I would have a barred owl show up and try to scare the birds out, but not since the lights were in place. Of course the barred guys are not anywhere close to being as aggressive as the great horned owl.
After the martins leave, I move my lights to positions where I had a lot of damage caused by deer. I haven't had any deer problem since I started doing that, so I ca say for sure that they help with that issue. Good luck!

[Chuck4]

Now that I have six nesting pairs, I decided to go ahead and order and install four of these on my gourd rack. I have seen a Barred Owl and a Great Horned owl in my area.