Can Small Colonies Drain Local Areas of Martins?

[BIOteacher012]

I have a 3 year old colony of almost 20 pair this year so far. I have had a great break through, doubling my numbers from last year at this point. My father lives about 5 miles to the north of me. He has not even seen a martin fly over his site yet. He has a gourd rack of Troyer horizontal gourds and a T14 with gourds underneath. He has a combination of crescents and Conelly II entrances, just as I do. I mentioned to him that I would like to max my colony numbers to 25 pair, and that's all I can handle.

I feel for him.....he is diligently keeping pest birds out and playing the Dawnsong and Chatter CD's....but nothing, just like last year. In 2013, he had one pair that nested successfully, but didn't return in 2014.

So.....what are the chances that my colony is keeping him from seeing any birds or getting potential nesting pairs this year? I have had some advice to leave all my entrances wide open until I max, and then close the rest. Should I be closing some entrances now to give him a chance? Or, is there another issue.....that the SY wave in Wisconsin just hasn't kicked into full swing yet? Just looking for some feedback from my fellow martin friends!! Close some off.....or don't worry about it??

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

They naturally will go to established colonies before they choose to start a new colony, so you may be draining some, but 5 miles is a great distance away, I doubt that what you suggest is true.

Also, there could be other reasons such as trees too close to his site, not enough flyways, established hawks near his site, open fields nearby for them to feed...etc. You should not feel guilty, your site may not have anything relating to his site that would drain the martins.

[tim414]

Sometimes, patience is a virtue.

At least, this is what I keep telling myself. I am trying to start a new colony. I have had ASY visitors, but those martins were migrating North. I am in North Texas in a area which, by all measure, should be very attractive to Martins. But, there are no known colonies even remotely near me. (closest that I can tell is over 20 miles).

Someday, I will be successful. I will continue to develop my site, (this Fall I'm cutting more trees-the site will be totally open then except for a building 40ft from the site-otherwise, totally open to fields with nearby water and a HUGE lake one mile in two directions).

This is my first season attempting. I am resolute if it takes 10 years (I hope it don't). Until then, I will keep the HOSP's and Starlings out and focus on Blue Birds and others.

Tim NorthTx (TNT)

Add: I say keep Starling's out....very recently, I had TWO Starling's nesting in my gourds (I have a Gemini Rack with Troyer horozontal and vertical gourds with Conley 2 entrances). These two starlings were a tad smaller and able to push themselves into the gourds. Their own kind (two-three larger starlings) KILLED one of the smaller ones getting into my gourds for some reason. Kept me from needing to. The other disappeared. Their own kind did me a favor lots of laughs....!!

[Doug Martin - PA]

Dispersion was used to establish new colonies in Western PA and was very successful in starting new colonies. Even my site benefited. Then participated in succeeding years.

However ALL landlords in the area participated for it to work.

We would close down any open cavities about the middle of May at all the active sites in the area. This was probably in a 20-30 mile radius. The criteria was any compartment without a completed nest of green leaves or eggs. This forced many birds to find new sites.

Without the co-operation of all landlords in your area there would be no way to be sure any would go there. Surely they would fill a nearby active site first. But it certainly would increase his chance.

Doug

[Mitch Booth]

Brian,

Any luck w your Dad yet?

I have one completed nest of 5 eggs and had four additional birds show up Saturday. Tonight I have 2 of those 4 birds spending the night. I will be thrilled with 2 or 3 pairs.

Here are a couple of changes I did last year that may have helped me this year:

Put up new gourd rack last fall 15 feet away from gourd rack that housed my one pair in 2013.

Increased each pole height to 16 ft instead of 14 ft.

Added Conley II tunnels and porches to all gourds.

My two pair and any visitors seem to favor the Troyer horizontals w no owl guard protectors versus the Super Gourds that have the same tunnels and porches but do have the curved aluminum owl guards.

I hope your dad gets a pair!!

Mitch

[BIOteacher012]

Hi Mitch,
Thanks for checking back with me. My dad had some excitement during the past 3 days. He had a subadult male show up on Friday. He would come on the hour to fly around and inspect the area. He was successful in bringing a female back with him several times. By Saturday, the martin was going from gourd to gourd. He even seemed to have his favorite gourd singled out, a PMCA excluder gourd with the crescent entrance. This one is mounted under his T14, along with 3 other gourds of various styles. This martin was also landing on my dad's new gourd rack that is mounted about 80 ft to the north of the T14.

Anyways.....this morning the SY martin only showed up one time. So, as I was driving to work, I passed a neighbor just a quarter of a mile down the road from my dad, that had a Troyer unit 12 gourd rack installed a year ago. There were my dad's 2 martins.....going from gourd to gourd on her gourd rack. My heart sank for him. He never had any returning SY birds the rest of the day today. Seems that the female knows where she would rather be. My dad, once again, seems to get the bum steer. Hopefully, something else comes along for him this season yet!!

[John Miller]

Keep taking care of your Wisconsin birds. if you had a colony of 60, 80 or 100 pairs and were still adding housing, indeed you might negatively impact others nearby. But 25 pairs is not large -- however, it's large enough to assure year to year that some martins are returning to your area. Very small colonies are not as stable as we'd like and one probably indeed needs 12 to 25 pairs to be more confident that some martins return each year. And if they then find no more housing, the overflow eventually finds its way to housing nearby.

John

[kirt J]

This year is my first with a pair of martins. The last two years I had a SY male hang around for three weeks. I live three miles from pokegama lake colony, so I lucked out and got one of his ASY males and he found a SY female.