Purple Martin Housing Plans For 2016

[Steve Kroenke]

Purple Martin Housing Plans For 2016

For 2016, I plan to make a few changes to my current purple martin colony. In 2015, my martin colony consisted of the following:

I erected 404 cavities: 80 aluminum Trendsetter rooms and 324 plastic gourds. There were five Trendsetters: three 12 room houses, one 16 room house and one 28 room system. I used 324 plastic gourds including Troyer Horizontals with cling plates and with tunnels/porches, Troyer Verticals, Excluders and Super Gourds. All cavities had round holes.

I had 17 systems: five Trendsetters including three with gourds; two 24 Geminis; one 36 gourd Super System; one 24 gourd Super System; and eight K 24 racks.

I believe I attracted 365 pairs of martins. The Trendsetters housed 61 pairs out of 80 cavities and the gourds had 304 pairs out of 324. The Trendsetter occupancy level was 76% and the occupancy level for the gourds was 94%. The gourds tend to have higher occupancy levels probably because nest domination issues are not as great and many martins may just prefer gourds. Martins nest in colonies but they are territorial and will defend multiple cavities at times. Gourds provide martins with more territorial privacy than houses since gourds are spaced farther apart and the gourds can be arranged where the holes are not side by side or face one another. The 12 and 16 room Trendsetters have staggered entrance holes and seem to provide more territorial privacy than the larger 28 compartment Trendsetter which has holes side by side and holes that are vertically stacked; the 28 room system does have porch dividers. I observed more nest domination problems in the 28 room Trendsetter than the smaller Trendsetters.

Here are the 2016 changes so far: all Super Gourds will have outside/inside porches and I have modified over 30 at this time; one older version of a K 24 rack with a two and half inch square pole will be replaced with a new 24 gourd Gemini rack with a three inch square pole; and all DL brake winches will be replaced with Fulton brake winches. I need to finish up some Super Gourds, assemble the Gemini and erect the system and install some more Fulton winches. So there will be not that many significant housing changes and the number of cavities will remain the same.

And some other updates and observations…

I will soon be building pre-nests of pine needles in my houses/gourds. I have a lot of pre-nesting to do!

My early starling trapping program has eliminated only six starlings so far and I have seen few starlings. I usually catch a few more starlings by now but still have December and January to send more “early” starlings to their appointment with the Grim Reaper! During the active martin nesting season, I usually shoot a few male starlings that stop by. Our starling problem is minor and easily controlled via trapping/shooting.

Migratory Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks are in the area and terrorizing our bluebirds, mockingbirds and other songbirds. A migratory male merlin, a small falcon, came right through my martin colony as if he was “looking” for something to eat! Merlins attack our martin colonies during March and mainly April each year as the merlins migrate north. April is the worst month for migratory Accipiters and merlins to terrorize our martin colonies.

I have finished all my Christmas shopping using Amazonsmile so that the PMCA will receive a donation for each of my purchases. I have been using Amazonsmile for all my online shopping at Amazon. I would encourage folks who shop at Amazon to shop using Amazonsmile to help the PMCA.

It’s hard to believe how fast time has passed since the last martins left our colonies during early August! We usually get our first martin during the last week of January and that time is not that far off!

Steve

[pmartinlover2]

Hey Steve-----sounds like you've been a busy man with still more to do before the end of January. We've hardly had any winter weather up here in central Illinois and we all know that has to pass before we think about the martins returning! You've done a lot of upgrades with your winches and 3" pole, and porches----all things that keep your martins coming back and keeping them safe. I've been waiting to see reports on the forum about preparations for the 2016 season by our southern landlords. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas!
Jody

[Martin man RI]

HI Steve
I agree and feel the Martin does favor gourds of any type of units for years i looked at what type of units were the most popular
and successful and gourds are the home of choice. I have started to remove old trio houses with troyer gourds. I have many failures
with the trio houses as well and no problems with gourds many missing parents in the houses too. Not sure if the hawks or owls perch
on the house and grab them? Plus the houses are infested with fleas at the end of the season and they also be a problem as some over winter
in them. All my gourd racks are high powered martin producers. ALl my problems have been with houses. And they are double size too.
I have two trio houses to remove and I feel once they are gone my numbers will sky rocket. I spoke to one golf club and told them the house is
over twenty years old and must go. And another club will have no problem with the removal of a old house for gourds since they already have over 30 gourds already. I manage 284 units mostly gourds and hope all will be gourds by the spring. The sites that are all gourds are at 100%
and no problems the houses many failures the birds are telling us go with gourds if possible. I learn and study from other landlords so the information is of great value. I managed over 200 pairs of martins last year and i know now gourds are the way to go.

Thanks for all the information
Ray

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Jody,

I still have a lot of preparations to do for the upcoming purple martin season. I will soon be gathering up bags of pine needles. My new storage shed I bought specifically for all my gourds/Trendsetter nest trays is nearly full and all these need to have pre-nests of pine needles! Today, I want to finish assembling the new Gemini and get it ready for hanging 24 Troyer Horizontal gourds. I will use all the Troyer gourds from the old gourd rack for the new one. Still have seven new Fulton winches to install; already done seven. I think I have enough Super Gourds modified with porches but may do a few more just in case.

We have had some cold mornings with frost. I really hate cold weather and I can sweat better than I can shake! We have had a lot of recent rains that eliminated the drought conditions we were experiencing earlier.

I hope you have a great martin season in 2016! Merry Christmas!

Steve

Hey Ray,

I usually see better occupancy rates in gourds over houses. However, we have good success with aluminum houses in our personal and satellite martin colonies; many of these houses are 100% occupied and raise a lot babies. So our aluminum houses are doing well and we use Trios, Trendsetters, Lone Stars and Bob's (my next door neighbor) designs.

Location is critical for martin colonies and we have changed out gourds to houses and houses to gourds and the martins readily accepted the changes. If you have an open location, then that can be the most significant factor in attracting martins.

I am really pleased you are having such great success with all your martin colonies. I know that martins are not as common in the northeast as down here in the south. Thanks for being an outstanding martin landlord and helping to increase the martin population in your area!

We will be looking forward to reading martin reports from you in 2016!

Steve

[wastrox]

Great write up Steve. A couple of questions. First, how is it that you have martins from January through early August? Second, do you have any problems with owl predation? Finally, you mentioned round holes. You never decided to do SREHs?

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Brenda,

Glad you liked the posting!

We get our first martin usually during the last of January. Nearly all our martins will have finished nesting by late July but there will still be many martins visiting our colonies as long as there are some nestlings. We on occasion will have a late pair or two that will not fledge their young until the first week of August. During that time in August some martins will visit these late nesters. So we do have some seasons where martins are here from the last of January until the first of August.

We have great horned and/or barred owl predation every season and this has been occurring ever since I began my Louisiana martin colony in 2005. "Our" owls hunt "our" martins like hawks. That is, the owls look for visible martins that are unwisely roosting out in the open on house/gourd porches, dawn singing male martins that are perched outside on the housing or sitting in the entrances, and recent martin fledglings that form large roosting groups on gourd racks/houses. At my current Louisiana colony, I have seen no evidence that the owls physically attack the houses/gourds and try to flush out martins or reach inside the cavities. We have security lights illuminating our personal colonies and I have observed owls swoop in and grab martins off house/gourd porches and gourd racks. When owls hunt this way, it is difficult to deter them as long as the owls can see martins somewhere around the housing. I stop many attacks by staying outside just after dark and chasing off any martins that try to roost out in the open on porches and getting up early in the mornings and maintaining a visible presence in my colony when the males are dawn singing. Dealing with huge numbers of recent martin fledglings that cluster on gourd racks/house porches is more difficult because of their numbers. Unfortunately, owls do catch some of these youngsters but not that many. Most large martin colonies probably experience some owl predation every year.

I don't use srehs in my personal colony because I don't have much of starling problem and starlings are easily controlled by trapping/shooting; I am retired and can monitor my colony daily. I have used round holes in all my personal martin colonies since the mid-60s. Martins have nested in round hole cavities for thousands of years and do just fine in them if starlings are not a problem or the landlord can control starlings. There are many outstanding round hole and sreh landlords all over North America. The key is management and properly taking care of your martin colony. We do use srehs in our various satellite martin colonies because these sites tend to have more starling issues and we can't monitor the colonies daily to eliminate any starlings.

Steve