My have to take the housing down this season

[jhcox]

Did you buy some bottle rockets yet Whippy. It seems to work pretty good. And it’s not like you trying to kill the hawk just shot it in his general direction when you see him on his perch getting ready to strike or even when he’s diving into your colony. He will get tired of being shot at with the bottle rockets and hopefully move on. Good luck.

[Whippy]

Did you buy some bottle rockets yet Whippy. It seems to work pretty good. And it’s not like you trying to kill the hawk just shot it in his general direction when you see him on his perch getting ready to strike or even when he’s diving into your colony. He will get tired of being shot at with the bottle rockets and hopefully move on. Good luck.

Certain bottle rockets are illegal to possess in the State of Texas. The best ones, black cat, are the ones made illegal many years ago. The ones that are "legal" are not allowed in the city limits. If I were to shoot one off where I currently live, they would bout me in solitary confinement and make me wear a mask.

So what I do is fire my pellet gun at the limb he is sitting on and scare him off that way. It looks like it works because tonight he would not come into my yard as me and my son were there waiting on him. My son modified Super Marti by running a long string from the lower portion of the gourd rack pole up to the top of our chimney. So Super Marti now flies up and down that string. The flying up and down is made possible by an additional string attached to SM so when you pull it you can run SM up to the chimney. If you let the string go, he flies down to the bottom of the pole. Looked pretty cool. The plan is to make SM fly up and out to make the hawk chase him as if he were fleeing the gourds. A person has to be present to operate the motion string. Otherwise he floats in mid air at the mercy of the wind which looks good as well.

My anger and frustration of losing a Martin because I didn't get outside fast enough, along with the frequent attacks, prompted the creation of this thread. Tonight I had 18 Martins in my airspace working to come into roost. Sixteen made it in while two other ASY males departed having not fully accepted the site. So I guess not all is lost. Tomorrow my son and I will construct a scare crow or two now knowing that our presence is a deterrence. It's hopeful that making the hawk afraid of you makes the use of a scarecrow even more successful...I hope.

Thank you, JH.

Coolwhips

[jhcox]

Hey I have had a great idea if you can find one on Amazon. I used to de very avid at decorating for Halloween and year’s ago I had a ghost that had a motor in it and it would run the length of a rope and go back and forth. If you could adapt it to hold a scarecrow outfit it would keep him away. I wouldn’t think it would be to hard to modify it. If you have multiple racks you could make it walk back-and-forth between them. Maybe I should applied for a patent for that before I blurted it out. O well anything for our Martins. Give it a shot coolwhips.

JHCox

[G Saner]

Hey Whippy,

WOW! 16 came in to roost. That is very good for this time of year. I look forward to updates on how your colony progresses.

[Whippy]

Thanks, G.

I haven't seen the hawk in a couple of days. He may have found an easier source or something. I'm not giving up on deterrence methods as he may have given up on my yard due to the constant harassment levied by me and my son. Perhaps he hit Super Marti and got stung or something. I just don't know but he's not hunting here in the mornings or evenings in the last 3 days.

Will update in the near future.

Coolwhips

[Whippy]

My heart goes out to you Whippy.
There are a lot of us that have been where you're at right now with the hawk attacks.
The PMCA should take a survey (like they did with the wing entrapment survey (which it would be nice for the PMCA to report back about that)) about colony raptor attacks, and the specifics surrounding them (number of Martins killed, number of daily attacks, species of attacker, etc.).
Is does not take an expert, for example, to see that Cooper's hawks have exploded in numbers in many areas.
There are many areas (like where I am) that used to show the Cooper's as being winter territory only, and that they migrated further north to nest.
Now they are not only nesting here, but are exploding in numbers - to the detriment of many songbird sanctuaries that are home to other protected birds like Martins.
What's needed are laws to be changed, to adequately address what's happening.
The knee-jerk reaction of some may be that any sort hawk control is not feasible, especially if the hawks are nesting.
My response would be is that any worse than those same hawks killing one or both of the parent Martins of any particular nest?
It would be interesting to see what the PMCA's stance on this is, in terms of how they view the obvious increase in the numbers of certain raptors (especially Cooper's hawks), and the reported effect it's having on Martin colonies. If they see it as enough of a problem (which I hope they would), perhaps they could lobby for the easing of protections of these raptors - especially in situations where they are decimating Martin colonies.
If they don't see it as enough of a problem to take action, then they should make that known also.

Matt,

I agree. The coopers hawk has thrived in the urban environment. There is plenty of resources for them in all arenas. They are smart and will continue to prey on the easiest food source they can find. For some of them it is martin colonies. Asa result they are exploding in numbers as you have mentioned.

Predator control takes place all over the country. Wolves, Coyotes, Bobcats, Mountain Lions, Raccoons, Opossums, Skunks and the list goes on. You can include pest species as well like Beavers and such. However, avian predators are given a pass. Why is this? Why should it be ok to have a hawk completely eradicate a breeding population of another migratory bird but not ok for a coyote to grab a sheep? It doesn't make sense.

I can drive through any neighbor hood in this city and show you a coopers hawk. Not all of these neighborhoods host martin colonies so more power to them. But when you have one particular hawk attacking one specific colony, something has to be done. Scaring them off just makes them smarter and more determined to succeed. All deterrents and distractions further educate these hawks. My particular hawk has learned to only go after moving targets. He no longer hits stationary objects. Scaring them out of nearby trees where they launch their attacks from has only pushed them further out and they now time their attack and use cover more efficiently on their approach. At some point you, and the martins, lose the battle.

I believe in what you are saying that an organization dedicated to the survival of the species should become more active helping all martin landlords in finding a solution to the problem of hawk predation.

Coolwhips

[white-out]

One thing we all have in common is helping the wildlife that are loosing habitat every second, of every day. When I was young, trapping fur was something most country males did to make money. Now, fur is taboo
(also males lol) and I have shot more raccoons with distemper in a day than I have in 30 years. My point is, things change and the harvesting rules need to keep up with a standard. Saying that it's "nature's way" is naive because most of what we do hinders nature the most.

Matt made a very good suggestion of how and who might address this situation. I hope it will be a torch that can find a respectful result. peace, Doug

[cabin man]

I feel your pain. We had a pair of sharp- shinned hawks nest in a neighbor’s white pine tree. They did a real number on all of our songbirds. I did not have an active Purple Martin colony at the time. Thank God! I don’t know how I could have handled that. Hang in there. One suggestion. Talk to your neighbor. Sometimes their willingness to help can surprise you. Cutting down the tree would be my first thought, but at the very least, ask if you could put up some bird netting around it. Should help. At least to slow the attacks from that location. Good luck. I’d hate to see you have to take down your houses, but I understand your reasoning. As mentioned before, relax and try to think outside of the box. We’re all pulling for you

[Whippy]

Thanks, C-Man.

The neighbors, although friendly and easy to get along with, don't really care too much for birds or anything else outside of their bubble. I've been able to keep the hawk outside of the range for a while. He knows who I am and what my intentions are. When he sees me he bugs out and will come back about an hour later. I've run him off now 4 times today and it's only 12:28pm. I didn't see him at all yesterday. I have a large bank of windows I sit and watch out of but he can also see me when I walk by them. So when he sees me walk past the windows, he'll bug out. All the trees around are 50 to 75 feet tall so bird netting would be a pretty extensive operation.

In the beginning I thought making him scared of me would keep him away but all that has done is educate him. He's become quite the nuisance. Looking back at when he and I first met, I should have been a little bit more stern with him.

Coolwhips