putting up housing at a nature center - questions

[Veronica G]

Hi everyone. I recently started working at a nature park in south Texas and was given permission to put up some PM housing I've had a colony at my house for several years, and I've been participating in Project MartinWatch for 4 or 5 years now. I'm very excited about this opportunity, but I've been wrestling over what kind of system to put up.

I have 3 Trio castles at my home colony, and I like them well enough after enlarging the compartments and making a couple of other modifications, but I have a few other things to consider for this new site. First of all, I'll be making presentations and conducting public nest checks. We will collect data for Project MartinWatch so I need housing that makes it easy for the public to view what's going on in the nests. The public may or may not be able to come right up to the housing because of placement (still trying to decide on an ideal location). I'm thinking something with removable nest trays would work best.

I've never had gourds, so I'm not sure how "public viewing friendly" they are. Any thoughts on this?

I've looked at the Lonestar Goliad and Alamo systems. They seem nice, but I don't like that you can't open each compartment individually. Has anyone had any issues with this?

And my last issue involves snakes. We have lots of diamond-back water snakes, and I've seen some bull snakes around too. How well do the predator guards work against snakes? The folks in charge weren't too keen on putting up netting to catch snakes. We certainly don't want to inadvertently kill any snakes, and we don't want the public to walk up to a snake caught in a net.

I'm open to any tips or suggestions. Thanks!

Veronica

[John Miller]

More and more I find the large gourds == and my fav is the excluder gourd -- easiest to manage, and with the large access port it's pretty easy for anyone to peer inside. I have small groups walk one at a time over and peer in, but I suppose you could actually take a gourd with babies off the rack and show that way.

You won't get a firm answer as to whether the cylinder guards are an adequate protection against snakes. I advise using netting above just in case, but I understand it looks weird at public sites, and so do the best you can. Get one of the larger cylinder guards and make sure the top is at least four feet off the ground.

Go for it.

John M

[G Saner]

Veronica,

I think gourds would be perfect. When my wife was teaching, we would have her entire class over (with parents, grandparents and siblings) to our backyard for a bird lesson. I would ask the entire group to line up and then take down a gourd and remove the cap. Forty or fifty people would move past and look inside the gourd in a very short time so I could put it back up quickly.

[Veronica G]

Thanks John and G for the encouragement. I've never used gourds - are they easy/quick to remove from the rack? Will I need to take tools out with me? One of the best options for placement of the PM housing is beyond a barrier at the edge of a pond. The public won't be able to walk up to the housing, so I would have to bring a gourd/nest tray to them.

Let me start looking at gourds. I have a budget I have to stick to...

Veronica

[Louise Chambers]

You could also consider option of house/gourd combo - small house with couple of gourds below it. With some systems it is simple to slide entire gourd off arm, and you could take it over to show folks. Houses, the nest trays are the way to do for that option.

At the botanical gardens here, we have both houses and gourds, which is nice example that shows people what they might put up in their own backyards. I'm glad you are getting involved with this site - you will be a great mentor for them.

[G Saner]

Veronica,

With my gourd rack, you simply pulled out a cotter pin and slid the gourd off the support arm. Very simple. No tools. Biggest worry is dropping the cotter pin in the grass.

My wife is from your area and we visit often. Are you allowed to name the nature park? Would love to see your set up once you are finished.

[John Miller]

Veronica

Gourds can be taken off the rack to show the nest if participants can't just walk over to it, but honestly it's sometimes a little tricky. The pin will pull out, but you might have to jiggle the gourd a bit to get it off the arm, and especially to put it back and align the arm through the two holes, so one would need to be very careful with a nest of eggs. That said, it can be done. I do like to show folks both a house and a gourd rack, and then you can expect to be asked at each public event: which do martins prefer?. You can come up with your own clever answers!

John M

[Veronica G]

Thanks for your replies everyone! We had a meeting yesterday, and my suggestion for placement was vetoed. But, we discussed it, and some trees will be cut down to place the housing in an area that will be accessible to the public and near our new entrance fee booth. That makes me breathe a little easier, as that fee booth will be staffed, so someone will always be there to keep an eye on the housing

I think I'm going to go with a house and gourds combo. Still not sure which ones yet, though.

Louise, since you manage a colony at the Botanical Gardens, did you have to get any sort of license from the city, state, or feds to handle the martins?

G, this housing will be going up at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands and World Birding Center. We'd love to have you come visit! I'll be sure to post some photos of the set-up here when it's ready (which won't be until next year).

Thanks for all your suggestions!

Veronica

[Louise Chambers]

Veronica - I manage the houses, which includes controlling starlings (if they get inside a sreh, they usually don't) and house sparrows, monitoring nests, keeping nest records, and showing martins to visitors, & giving a few programs.

I usually show people the nestlings by either removing a nest tray to show quickly (Goliad houses with removable nest trays) or sliding a gourd off the arm and holding that so folks can look inside it. Any handling of nestlings is pretty much unnecessary that way.

I think that's best, because kids all want to hold them/pet them, which is stressful to the nestlings, and we don't allow it, explaining that it would stress them. Once in a while, I will pick a mid-age nestling up and hold it myself, showing the group the wings, growing feathers, etc.

You can talk to the staff at the WBC about this - good idea to know ahead of time what's okay and what's not. A bird bander can handle birds for purpose of banding. The WBC may have someone on staff who has an education permit that allows them to handle birds.