Visitors Question

[Bkhollan]

So in another post I had some pictures of my visitors to my housing. While I haven't been home much over the past 2-3 days, I have seen visitors every day for the last 4-5 days. I added a CD player to play the dawnsong on a timer then switch it over to the chatter later in the morning.

When I've seen them, it's usually 1-2 PM adult males but I've had up to six at a time. So my question is, how do you know when you have one or more that have decided to stay? I assume either nest building or staying the night in the gourds?

I've read people put in nesting material (pine straw) prior to their birds arriving. Does that still help attract PMs for someone who is looking to start a colony versus already having one established?

Appreciate the help

[Archer]

Staying for night, is a good sign, In my opinion nest building is the clincher. Then you know they have committed to your house. People add pine straw or other straw as it is an insulating factor. Early migrants are often fight with cold and lack of food. It is not necessary to attract martins, but it doesn't hurt either. I like to provide my martins with wheat straw on an elevated platform, because that is what I have available here.

[deancamp]

If they spend the night, you have a good start. Then you will see them start bringing a potential mate back with them trying to entice them into the nest. I think the pine straw (needles) help make the setup look used which is more inviting.

[John Miller]

Try turning the audio off for a few days and see if one special male will come for the housing and not just the audio. The audio may be a useful tool to alert martins to housing, but I suspect, but can't prove, that daily use may be counter productive. It's like the old saying about a bird in the hand, only in this case I'd rather have one male purple martin coming because he sees the housing and is motivated to check it out for nesting; not several coming because they hear audio and may be less inclined to stay.

[Archer]

Me and John Miller never agree on this subject,lol My perspective is that Martins are social birds and that playing the Dawnsong and Daytime Chatter, help them feel at ease, after all, Martins like to be around Martins. Besides, there are more martins out there to attract. I kept playing the Dawnsong until I saw signs of nest building. Attracted 6 pair that year. Just my opinion of coarse. There you have it, both sides of the story.

[John Miller]

Archer I absolutely agree with your first post that staying the night means they are committed. But I'm apprehensive about over playing. Biologists who first used these recordings for trying to establish colonies of other bird species like least terns and puffins will disagree with me too.

I just observe the things we know and am doubtful about what we don't. We know a male martin spots the housing initially and if he likes it he will bring prospective females. If he's distracted by audio, will he bring females and will they relax and settle in? I'm doubtful; may be wrong, but I know if one has played it a few mornings and later a male martin comes on his own...then there's no risk the audio will slow him down.

[itroyer]

I got my first pair in 2014, I played the dawnsong all day every day until they were nesting

[randyM]

I play my chatter CD most of the day until nest building begins. Even if you have a lone male, or a pair or two interested in your housing, they are likely going go be gone much of the day miles from your site out feeding and perhaps looking for other martins to bring back to your site. If migrating martins stop by your site when others are away, they may be less likely to stay if there are no other martins or vocalizations coming from around your housing. If you don't have martin decoys, I strongly recommend adding those to your site and have them perched near your speaker(s). One often underutilized use of the daytime chatter CD is to play it during fall migration (August - mid Sept. in my area). I typically attract 20-30 migrants each fall to my site by playing the chatter CD. Hopefully a few that stop over will come back in the spring and check out my housing again. I live on the western edge of the breeding range for martins, so I use all tools available to bring attention to my martin housing.

Good luck this season!
Randy

[John Miller]

Randy

For me, observing that martins take up residence when playing the audio doesn't confirm it's helping. We know it will bring them in for a look. If anyone has observed a single male bringing in a female to look at a prospective house -- while the audio is playing -- and the male then doing the normal activity of flying into unit and vocalizing to get her to come in too...and not seeming to be sidetracked by the other guy...I'd be less doubtful, and my concern is whether at some point it's counter productive. Many folks have played it for over a decade and saw martins come and not stay . If I were going to use it, and I'm contact now with a public site where the biologists there want to start blaring it from loudspeakers on a building, I'd suggest using it a few mornings and see what happens, then back off.

[Archer]

Another observation comes to mind. My colony was started by an SY female. She stayed the night without a mate while I was playing the Dawnsong, Daytime Chatter. It only took her 2 days after that first night and she was paired up in the same cavity where she stayed the first night. Leads me to believe she was attracted to the house and the Dawnsong. Doesn't prove anything.

[rrmartins]

Once you have them spending the night, you can turn off all of your audio. The martins will bring more of them in, better than a recording will. Sounds like your off to a good start.
GOOD LUCK!!!

[John Miller]

[quote=Archer post_id=284194 time=1555268612 user_id=5002]
Another observation comes to mind. My colony was started by an SY female. She stayed the night without a mate while I was playing the Dawnsong, Daytime Chatter. It only took her 2 days after that first night and she was paired up in the same cavity where she stayed the first night. Leads me to believe she was attracted to the house and the Dawnsong. Doesn't prove anything.
[/quote]

Then maybe I'm wrong and you are right. A friend of mine would say those are "sweet words" from me. ha.

[flyin-lowe]

Some people think adding nesting material gives the cavity that "lived in" look making it appear as martins have stayed there in the past. Some do it just so they don't have to spend as much energy building and as much time on the ground which can be dangerous to them. I usually add some to some cavities and leave some empty. I have had martins pick a cavity, take the pine straw out and then start over from scratch. I have had some SY's use only the nesting material I put in and nothing else.
When I started having daily visitors I quit playing the dawn song. I have seen some martins appear to be confused by it and had one that was obsessed with it and would just keep swooping down at the player, and landing on it a few times. He would pay attention to nothing else when it was on.
I have started a new colony twice and both times in the beginning the first martins I had would spend very little time at the housing the first few days and then more and more as nest building got closer. If you are seeing males or females going in and out of cavities right now that is a good sign. If they are spending the night even better. I would watch as soon as the sun comes up. If you have some sitting on the porches then more then likely they spent the night.

[Archer]

Another observation comes to mind. My colony was started by an SY female. She stayed the night without a mate while I was playing the Dawnsong, Daytime Chatter. It only took her 2 days after that first night and she was paired up in the same cavity where she stayed the first night. Leads me to believe she was attracted to the house and the Dawnsong. Doesn't prove anything.

Then maybe I'm wrong and you are right. A friend of mine would say those are "sweet words" from me. ha.

Maybe. One thing I know for sure, is that martins are individuals and they do not all react the same way.

[deancamp]

I agree with Archer's statement about them being individuals and that they react differently. Obseve their behavior and be ready to adapt. I am always learning.

[pmlover]

In addition to the pine needles, get a little mud and put on your houses and or gourds to make it look like they have been used before. This is what i do when i put a new house up. Good lick and God bless you and your little purples.
Dick Morrow

[cabin man]

I tried for 34 years to attract my first pair. What I decided to do on one warm night with a slight South wind, was to let the dawn song play into the evening and overnight. I thought about attracting owls, but I didn’t have any Martin’s there anyway. The next morning when I got up, there was a pair of birds there that stayed and nested. Not sure if that did the trick or not, but that’s what worked for me. Also, as someone mentioned , all birds are individuals and I have had some react unfavorably to the Dawn song and decoys. I found what worked better for me, was to move the speaker and decoys about 25 feet from my set up. Many times, the birds would circle the speaker and decoys and land on my set up. Just my thoughts and what worked for me. Good luck! Rob.