New Member from Arkansas and Late Arrivals

[TWilliam]

Greetings! I did not see a thread, where new members could introduce themselves, so I hope the administrators will pardon me if I take some liberty.

I live in a small town in Northeast Arkansas, and this is my third year as a landlord. I just put up a second telescoping pole with some hanging gourds. I’m a little concerned, however, because it seems that everybody is experiencing late arrivals this year. Our spring was rather cold and wet, and even though I have seen purple martins in the neighborhood, it doesn’t seem like any of them are nesting.

Thus far I’ve got some kind of activity in my main house, but it’s too early to tell if they are martin or starling nests. At least I haven’t had any trouble with sparrows this year. The mornings are still pretty cold, but we are experiencing much warmer temperatures than we have in the past two months. Even so, I wish there was more I could do. Nobody seems interested in any of the hanging gourds right now.

Thank you for approving my account and good luck everyone.

[Birdiegirl]

Welcome to the forum! I'm also a third year landlord, in central Kentucky. Seems we had a slow start this year too, but things really picked up over the weekend. Hopefully the birds in your area will get a little more serious with the warmer temperatures. There's so much good information on the forum, and folks with years of experience- feel free to ask questions! Glad you aren't dealing with house sparrows- be sure to discourage any starlings that might be taking interest. Glad to have you with the group- be sure to keep us posted on your progress and good luck this season!

[Jones4381]

https://www.purplemartin.org/uploads/me ... 12-258.pdf
top 12 reasons we lose our colonies of Martins. Lower the pole and check the cavities to see what kind of nest (if any are in there). If it's Starling nest pull and destroy it, then eliminate the Starling(s). Good luck. Stay vigilant and monitor your site as much as possible.

[TWilliam]

https://www.purplemartin.org/uploads/me ... 12-258.pdf
top 12 reasons we lose our colonies of Martins. Lower the pole and check the cavities to see what kind of nest (if any are in there). If it's Starling nest pull and destroy it, then eliminate the Starling(s). Good luck. Stay vigilant and monitor your site as much as possible.

Since I can’t tell what kind of nests are in progress and there are no martins around, I think it may be wise to clean them out completely just to be safe.

[CTMartins]

Welcome to the forum! I'm also a third year landlord, in central Kentucky. Seems we had a slow start this year too, but things really picked up over the weekend. Hopefully the birds in your area will get a little more serious with the warmer temperatures. There's so much good information on the forum, and folks with years of experience- feel free to ask questions! Glad you aren't dealing with house sparrows- be sure to discourage any starlings that might be taking interest. Glad to have you with the group- be sure to keep us posted on your progress and good luck this season!

Don't listen to Birdiegirl we're a closed cold hearted group who only talk to birds. Well we do talk to birds but welcome and you might not have sparrow because starlings are keeping them at bay. I too don't see sparrows now and I just got a trap too!!! However I do have a starling army around.

[Jones4381]

https://www.purplemartin.org/uploads/me ... 12-258.pdf
top 12 reasons we lose our colonies of Martins. Lower the pole and check the cavities to see what kind of nest (if any are in there). If it's Starling nest pull and destroy it, then eliminate the Starling(s). Good luck. Stay vigilant and monitor your site as much as possible.

Since I can’t tell what kind of nests are in progress and there are no martins around, I think it may be wise to clean them out completely just to be safe.

all of these links are on the main page of this site. Take a look at this one to help identify nest if you don't have the time to observe on which bird is going in and out of your cavities. SREH openings will prevent 98% of Starling breaches and they are pretty easily identifiable due to their god awful screeching noises, yellow long sharp beak, and typically 30%+ larger than Martins. Good luck and welcome to the site. 3rd year myself.

[C.C.Martins]

TWilliam,
Welcome to martin central. Yes we talk to the martins and iv been known to talk to starlings and sparrows....sounds like this...
Hold still, yep, hold on.....perfect, gotcha!!! Yes!!!!

Yeah you may need to look hard at your entrances, some folks can live with round 2 inch holes, others cannot. Im one of the cannot. Starling resistant entry holes will help keep the starlings at bay as will a pellet gun.
They will drive off and kill martins so if your desire is to host martins for years and years (you will have them for their life time) they must be dealt with.

If you find blue eggs, and a messy nest, its probably starlings. Watch close, they will lay an egg and take off so will find an empty nest....like a martin they incubate after the last egg is laid.
Lots of good resources here!
Tom

[TWilliam]

TWilliam,
Welcome to martin central. Yes we talk to the martins and iv been known to talk to starlings and sparrows....sounds like this...
Hold still, yep, hold on.....perfect, gotcha!!! Yes!!!!

Yeah you may need to look hard at your entrances, some folks can live with round 2 inch holes, others cannot. Im one of the cannot. Starling resistant entry holes will help keep the starlings at bay as will a pellet gun.
They will drive off and kill martins so if your desire is to host martins for years and years (you will have them for their life time) they must be dealt with.

If you find blue eggs, and a messy nest, its probably starlings. Watch close, they will lay an egg and take off so will find an empty nest....like a martin they incubate after the last egg is laid.
Lots of good resources here!
Tom

I wish I could pelt them but it is impossible since I live within city limits. I think all of my gourds have SREH on them but the main metal house does not. Perhaps I can modify them?

[TWilliam]

My condos

F504F497-80DC-4062-B827-5B8CD0CBE6DA.jpeg

(3.23 MiB) Not downloaded yet

[jhcox]

I would modify the metal house down to 6 room to in large the cavities. You can buy the crescent entrances to replace the round hole. A Starling will wear you out all summer trying to remove their nest from the round hole compartments. I hope this helps. Good luck. JHCox Heiskell TN.

[C.C.Martins]

Ok nice set up! Thats a trio house. Yep you have some options. 1. Can simply buy some replacement doors with crescents. Easy fix. 2. Not so easy route is to attach tunnels to the doors. Thats involved, but do able. Number of options to choose from, Troyer tunnels are probably best. I added some to a trio mini castle, martins love them.
In either case, if you havnt already done so please consider expanding the rooms to the house. There are instructions here, however if you have martins just around the corner probably best to look at those crescent doors and plan on expanding later off season.

[TWilliam]

I would modify the metal house down to 6 room to in large the cavities. You can buy the crescent entrances to replace the round hole. A Starling will wear you out all summer trying to remove their nest from the round hole compartments. I hope this helps. Good luck. JHCox Heiskell TN.

They just screw in place?

[TWilliam]

Ok. I ordered some cover plates. Hopefully they’ll get here before it’s too late. Any idea why a Martin may reject a gourd? Two years in and they still don’t seem to like mine.

[CTMartins]

Ok. I ordered some cover plates. Hopefully they’ll get here before it’s too late. Any idea why a Martin may reject a gourd? Two years in and they still don’t seem to like mine.

Are they showing at your site or no?

[TWilliam]

Ok. I ordered some cover plates. Hopefully they’ll get here before it’s too late. Any idea why a Martin may reject a gourd? Two years in and they still don’t seem to like mine.

Are they showing at your site or no?

Sometimes…and usually on the power lines overhead.

[TWilliam]

Finally! Some more activity! Hopefully when I check them later this week, I’ll see some signs of nest building.

[Thomabear]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your arrivals. Hopefully, they will decide to move in. If they decide to stay, it can possibly be a couple of weeks before you see nest. Keep us updated.

[birdman in buckhead]

Greetings NE Arkansas. This is Terry in NC Georgia. Welcome to the forum/group!

I think you might want to read the "timeline" information on this website's main page. There you will learn all about the length of time between Martins arriving, building nests, laying eggs, hatching, fledging, eventual departure, and all that goes on in-between. "Chuck's Purple Martin" website is also full of good information.

After reading that, you'll know for sure if it's a martin or starling nest, because the martins don't start building nests until after they've been at your site for 3 - 4 weeks. So you should have plenty of time to know martins are at your place. That is if you're able to keep an eye on your housing. As someone suggested, if you're not seeing martins, remove any nests that are built in your housing.

I don't have problems with starlings, but sparrows will take over my housing if given a chance. Sparrows can completely fill a compartment with their nesting stuff in less than half a day! Before the first martin arrives, I check and clean my housing daily. Since I have an established colony, once martins arrive they take care of the sparrows, but I still keep an eye out and try to kill any sparrow I see.

Good luck!