So Far Bad Year

[David W]

Last season I had 16 nesting pairs out of 24 gourds. In June I noticed a 5" cover on the ground which I thought odd because the new gourds have screw on caps. I went out there and this gourd had some young ones in it, no more, this happened again and I could see two 1/2" conduit poles that hold 3 gourds were bent, one bent almost 90 deg. Then I knew I had problems most likely from racoons. I went out and did a nest check and found out that I lost 22 babies and 10 eggs. Shortly after this they left and I still had 5 pair with young. I built a spiked deterrent and put up a camera and that stopped them.

So this year my first martin arrived April 15, came and went and as of today (April 25) I have 3-5 male martins looking into gourds but not going in from what I see. Last year with the problem with the racoons I did not see any feathers from adults and hopefully they got out but my concern in from what I have been reading on here is that martins do not usually return to the same gourds year after year, so far this proves that is wrong, My neighbor up the road has martin gourds up and I have not seen any at their site, I usually see them flying around. Any thoughts?

[SSMartin]

Not sure what you mean by martins don’t return to the same gourds?

Predation can lead to colony abandonment. It sounds like you’re dealing with some hesitation due to the attacks the year prior.

[David W]

Thanks for the return post. I thought I had read on here many years ago that martins did not always return to their previous locations.

[flyin-lowe]

Seems to be confusion with terminology maybe. Adult martins will return to the same site/location each year. They may or may not choose the exact same cavity as the prior year. My very first year I had a lone SY male pick a spot and spent all summer trying to find a mate, and never did. The next year and ASY showed up and went straight for the same cavity, causing me to believe it was the same male.

[Mstan]

I noticed this year a female with a stubby tail. Her tail doesn’t fork out like it should. She is very easy to identify. I will definitely being looking for her next season the Lord willing.