SY's still arriving...& to everyone...

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ToyinPA
Posts: 2227
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:07 pm
Location: PA/Avis
Martin Colony History: The 1972 St. Agnes flood wiped out all the Martins in my area. One day, in 1997-98, 5 or 6 Martins landed on the power wires crossing my back yard. I had no house for them. They kept coming back day after day. We got a martin house a few weeks later & they have been coming back every year since. I average 12-15 pair per year.

HI Guys & Gals :).....just wanted to say CONGRATS to all who have active colonies & are doing well....and to those who are wannabees....don't give up....muddy up the outside of the entrances & just inside to make it look used, add nesting materials & control the Starlings & House Sparrows.

To those in the Southern & Southwestern flooded states ....hang in there....I hope you are all safe.

I have had 4 SY Males arrive so far....2 a few weeks ago, they stayed a few days & then left. Haven't seen them since, so maybe they were just stopping over on their way further north.

The other 2 SY Males (Speckles & Spot) are here fighting over a new SY Female that arrived this morning. I heard the sound of a new martin & figured it was a female by the way they were acting. YIPPIEEEE :)

The ASY Male (Raspy) that lost this mate has not found a new one yet.

I currently have 11 pair, with a soon new pair from the SYF that arrived today = 12. If the ASY Male finds a new mate that'll = 13 pair. 36 eggs laid so far - 1 cracked egg=35 eggs. There are 5 nests with no eggs yet. If the SY's get moving I'll have 6 pair with nests, no eggs yet. So far I am ahead of last years counts. Not a lot, but every little bit helps in my neck of the woods :).

I hope to get photos of the nests they built soon. OMG the nest trays are packed this year. You open the doors & stuff falls out. Lots of straw & twigs was used this year.

Toy in PA
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ILPadrino
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 11:13 am
Location: Downington PA

I am glad they are still arriving in PA. I still hoping something happens here in SE PA. Where are you located in PA? Do you think it is too late to put gourds up? I was thinking about taking house down and just putting up a gourd rack. Any thoughts on this?
Joe
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David W
Posts: 79
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:32 am
Location: PA/Hamburg-Tilden Twp

Joe not to answer for Toy, but for almost 10 years I had a T-14 house that I built from plans, my neighbor 2 houses up (100 yards) put up gourds and he attracted them. They would look in but not go in. Starlings and sparrows were the only ones using it. I even put thin aluminum flashing that left 1 3/16" opening, no starlings but still sparrows. This went on for almost 10 years and taking a back road saw a yard filled with gourds and had plenty of martins. I stopped in one day and told him my predicament and he had gourds from a woman that grew them just for martins, thick at least 1/4". He cut the hole and painted them white and used wire for a hanger. I bought 4 and hung them in each corner and in 2013 attracted 4 SY pair.
2014 I took the T-14 house down and designed a way to attach 1/2" EMT conduit that was removable and bought 12 plastic gourds and hung them on the conduit. I had 9 nesting pair but only 7 pair hatched eggs.
2015 I added 12 more gourds and have filled 19 gourds so far with 101 eggs. I should have some hatching tomorrow (29th).

Very early in April I had a starling pair looking in but I had a talk with one and have not seen a starling or sparrow at the gourds since then. All my gourds have round holes and was told by this other gentleman that had a yard full that starlings don't like gourds. It seems to be that way here but others on this site have had them.

So my answer to you is put the gourds up especially if you have seen martins at your site.
2013-4 gourds 4 pair
2014-12 gourds 7 nesting pair, 32 fledged
2015-24 gourds 21 nesting pair 79 fledged
2016-24 gourds 21 nesting pair 89 fledged
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David W
Posts: 79
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:32 am
Location: PA/Hamburg-Tilden Twp

Joe, could not post the picture from last post but here is my set-up

Image[/url]
2013-4 gourds 4 pair
2014-12 gourds 7 nesting pair, 32 fledged
2015-24 gourds 21 nesting pair 79 fledged
2016-24 gourds 21 nesting pair 89 fledged
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ToyinPA
Posts: 2227
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:07 pm
Location: PA/Avis
Martin Colony History: The 1972 St. Agnes flood wiped out all the Martins in my area. One day, in 1997-98, 5 or 6 Martins landed on the power wires crossing my back yard. I had no house for them. They kept coming back day after day. We got a martin house a few weeks later & they have been coming back every year since. I average 12-15 pair per year.

ILPadrino wrote:I am glad they are still arriving in PA. I still hoping something happens here in SE PA. Where are you located in PA? Do you think it is too late to put gourds up? I was thinking about taking house down and just putting up a gourd rack. Any thoughts on this?
Joe
Joe:
I'm about 20 miles west of Williamsport.

I would add gourds. No landlord can say a house is better than gourds or gourds are better than a house. It's what the martins in your area prefer. So give them options & then go with it.

Even if you don't get any this year, those newly fledged may visit & remember your site for next year.

Toy in PA
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ILPadrino
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 11:13 am
Location: Downington PA

Thanks for the info David. I think i am going to purchase 6 of the Troyer Gourds with the Conley 2 entrances and put them up.

Joe
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Ed Pace
Posts: 680
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:31 pm
Location: NY/Jamestown

Toy, nice of you to let us know that the subs are still coming in, it will give a lot of people a little more hope.

David W, I see your guards are hung with shower curtain hooks in I Bolts, I was just curious how they act in high wind conditions? That is one of the reasons why sparrows and starlings don't like gourds because of the movement. I hope everybody has a good rest of the season.
Ed
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bwenger
Posts: 1057
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:24 pm
Location: Pennsylvania/Espyville/Pymatuning Reservoir Area
Martin Colony History: Taking care of 11 active public colonies and trying to start two more in northwestern PA. Also attempting to restart another one in southwestern PA, in Collier Township's Hilltop Park. In 2017, not sure what happened but the ASY male returned and then a couple of weeks later he was gone. It could have been weather related. No other birds showed up. I had a starling nesting at the Public site that I had trouble getting rid of.
In 2018, we fledged 629 martins at all of the sites.

Toy, congratulations on the start of a good year for you! Hopefully this year your site can jump in size!

I am also hearing that SY birds are coming into PA in larger numbers now, so for anyone trying to start a colony, make sure you keep your housing free of any other nesting birds.

Joe, getting some gourds may be a good move for you. I maintain a public site here in northwest PA, and I here is something I sent out to some local landlords the other day.

One thing that I wanted to make note of, and I feel that this is significant, since T14's have appeared to be the housing of choice up here in northwest PA, but at the Pymatuning Learning Center, with a 24 gourd rack(18 available gourds) and a T14 with 10 available cavities, not a single active nest was found in the T14, whereas 15 of 18 available gourds had active nests with eggs, and the other 3 gourds had nests with green leaves in them. Only one of the T14 cavities had a nest with green leaves.

David, congratulations on the job that you are doing for purple martins as well. It's great to see colonies increase in size like that.

Next year on April 1st, we'll be having another Purple Martin Seminar at Longwood Gardens, so if you're interested, I'll get something posted on the Forum next spring with the information.

This has the making of being a very good year for martins and landlords!

Bill
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Dan G
Posts: 446
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:52 pm
Location: PA/Bellefonte
Martin Colony History: Several colonies with in 6 mile radius.
Have had visitor every year 2014-24.
Two large trees removed in fall 2024 and moved T-14 to a more open location.
2025- 1 SY pair. Fledged 2.
2026- no pairs. One daily SYM here daily. Named him Riggs!

South winds are predicted for the next two days. Bill, I think its cool that you have closed off a few openings to encourage other colonies to start.
Bellefonte PA
2014, 1st year-a few lookers, no nests
2015-23. Visitors each year. But no pairs.
2024- most active year. 2-4 SY male’s hang out most days.
2025, 1 SY pair. 2 eggs, 2 fledged!! Other martins visited daily.
Still eliminating starlings and sparrows.
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bwenger
Posts: 1057
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:24 pm
Location: Pennsylvania/Espyville/Pymatuning Reservoir Area
Martin Colony History: Taking care of 11 active public colonies and trying to start two more in northwestern PA. Also attempting to restart another one in southwestern PA, in Collier Township's Hilltop Park. In 2017, not sure what happened but the ASY male returned and then a couple of weeks later he was gone. It could have been weather related. No other birds showed up. I had a starling nesting at the Public site that I had trouble getting rid of.
In 2018, we fledged 629 martins at all of the sites.

Thanks Dan,

This year I have a total of 37 cavities and gourds closed off. Other years it has been less, but I have done it since 2008 or 2009. I manage the one colony for the Game Commission, it's on Swamp Road, and it has a T14 with 4 gourds beneath it and a 12 gourd rack. Last year was the first year that the housing was up there, and it had 4 pair. I figured if I closed half of the gourd rack off, and only leave 1 open cavity on each side of the T14, along with the 4 gourds beneath the T14, that would allow the site to grow to 14 pairs if all open gourds and cavities were used, which would be a nice size jump. Currently, I have 9 active nests out of the 14 planned, so with some SY birds coming back, we may hit that total.

Over the last couple of years, all of the sites have at least 8 nesting pair, so we should be safe in case any major weather event occurs during migration or in Brazil to have at least some of the birds returning.

If you have people trying to start colonies, and it doesn't happen within 2-3 years, you may lose them as potential landlords, since there is a lot of work normally when starting a new colony and keeping it free of non-native species, as well as just getting visitors or nesting pairs to start the colony!

Bill
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wastrox
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 10:16 am
Location: VA/Great Falls
Martin Colony History: A new purple martin wannabe landlord, I took over management of long neglected colonies at two public golf courses Spring of 2015. I had 20 nesting pairs at Algonkian Golf Course and 15 at Brambleton.

Bill - I am very interested learning more about your efforts and experience "pushing" martins to other sites. Is there an article on this approach anywhere? We don't have a lot of martins in Northern VA. I just started managing two public sites and it has me thinking about this.
2015 Obsessed Newbie - brand spankin' new 6 gourd Troyer system at home and only lookers
2015 took over management in late May of sites at two golf courses with active colonies
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David W
Posts: 79
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:32 am
Location: PA/Hamburg-Tilden Twp

Ed, they are basically a shower curtain hook but made out of stainless steel. The eye hooks are double nutted so that they can not come loose and the wind can only rotate the gourds less than a 1/4 turn.

So far this is the second year with this set-up and we have had some wind and have been lucky that nothing has happened.

I have seen some gourd set-ups where a bolt was put through the hole and fastened to a piece of tubing, so basically it can only rock up and down. I am always looking for a better way and after the martins leave I will look for some square aluminum tubing and do the above.

The way things have been going I will have to add another pole with more gourds for next year. From nest checks I have better than doubled last years nesting.
2013-4 gourds 4 pair
2014-12 gourds 7 nesting pair, 32 fledged
2015-24 gourds 21 nesting pair 79 fledged
2016-24 gourds 21 nesting pair 89 fledged
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ILPadrino
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 11:13 am
Location: Downington PA

Hi All,
I took your advice and ordered some Troyer Gourds with Conley 2 entrances. I'll get em up as soon as they arrive. I have to keep hope alive!

Joe
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