Why the fighting?
-
C.C.Martins
- Posts: 3368
- Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:15 am
- Location: Corpus Christi Tx
- Martin Colony History: 2016- Visitors.
2017- 5 pair. 15 fledged
2018- 18 pair. 85 fledged
2019- 17 pair. 81 fledged
2020- 25 pair. 111 fledged
2021- 28 pair. 118 fledged
2022- 33 pair. 151 fledged
2023- 33 pair. 165 fledged
2024- 40 pair. 185 fledged
2025- 40 pair. 181 fledged
HOSP:
Home colony: mix natural, super, Troyer and excluder gourds, enlarged compartment house. All SREH.
Satellite colony: Oso Bay Preserve: 49 PMCA excluder gourds; 16 room Lonestar Goliad with Modified Excluder entrances.
2019: Visitors
2020: 3 pair, 11 fledged
2021: 10 pair, 30 fledged
2022: 11 pair, 35 fledged
2023: 18 pair, 101 fledged
2024: 39 pair, 181 fledged
2025: 51 pair, 216 fledged
PMCA member
Picture looks like a tree swallow. Dont have them here, so don't know what their eggs look like.
A good house sparrow is a dead house sparrow.
HOSP: 17. Starlings: 23
HOSP: 17. Starlings: 23
-
Jones4381
- Posts: 830
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 10:54 pm
- Location: Southwestern VA
- Martin Colony History: 2020- 0
2021- 1 pair-5
2022- 5 pair-20
2023 34 pair-44
2024 30 pair-122
2025 54 Pair -178
100% a tree swallow. They shouldn't be in your PM housing as they will run off any PM's. There are some good links in here that I followed to a tee and I have Blue Birds, Tree Swallow, and PM's all within 40 yards of one another. I set a single small natural gourd with 1.5 inch opening about 30-35 feet away from my PM housing and on a black steel pole 6 feet high. The Tree Swallows too to it naturally more than the PM gourd rack. They have nested and hatched their young (day 13) and peacefully coexist with my PM's! Good luck.
"Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." - Lao Tzu
-
DML
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Sun May 24, 2020 7:39 pm
- Location: Gallia, OHIO
- Martin Colony History: First year
I guess my year is done before it started. This is year #2. Issues: I completed weekly nest checks just like last year. I did kill sparrows, similar to last year when I Had one successful pair. This year the PMs were fighting for 3 weeks I had no idea what to do. I had barn swallows and did not kill them, because they eat bugs also. I did throw out 4 white eggs, without any green leaf. Extremely disappointed.
2020 one pair, 3 eggs & 3 fledge
-
dsonyay
- Posts: 1677
- Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2010 3:10 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Broussard
- Martin Colony History: 2010-2014 located in Slidell LA. Gourd rack with 16 gourds. Max of 2 pairs during this short period in Slidell. Plenty of fledglings.
2014-present.. moved to Broussard LA. Same Gourd Rack but added a 6 room house (modified from a 12 room)
2020: after a long drought of nothing, 4 pairs and 4 nests, 23 eggs total.
6 fledges.
2021: 9 pair, 47 eggs
36 hatchlings
30 fledged
2022: about 12 pairs.. many eggs, all fledged.. only had one hatchling die.. probably because of our schnauzer. :(
2023: 16 pairs. So far about 60 chicks with about a dozen eggs to go.
2024: 13 pair. About 60 eggs
2025: 14 pairs .. 69 eggs.
Why throw out the eggs? If they are tree swallow eggs, I’d just leave those alone. You may not get martins, but tree swallows are good guys as well.DML wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 1:46 pmI guess my year is done before it started. This is year #2. Issues: I completed weekly nest checks just like last year. I did kill sparrows, similar to last year when I Had one successful pair. This year the PMs were fighting for 3 weeks I had no idea what to do. I had barn swallows and did not kill them, because they eat bugs also. I did throw out 4 white eggs, without any green leaf. Extremely disappointed.
I’d settle for TS over HS any day.
Maybe try to lure the tree swallows to some gourds in another spot with proper tree swallow holes. try to get them to go there and then for next year maybe they won’t try to settle in the martin housing. It’s something you can get going now to prepare for a better start next year.