Any time now, martins!

[tboydshirt]

I'm here in North central Ohio waiting my turn to get a shot at martins. I'm in my 3rd (or 4th) year trying in a decent location to get something started. I see that I can use the scout study to check subbies coming to Ohio from last year, and see that they should start showing up any day, but patience is a gift I don't possess in great quantity right now. I wish you all well in my outer voice and try to keep my secret inner voice from suggesting things like "Wouldn't it be nice if a tornado knocked down every house in the area but mine?!" Anyway, thanks to all the good advice I've been given and heeded. It's now up to the wind, rain, chance, and the mood of those 2oz birds to make my year of cutting trees, placing housing, and guarding holes pay off. Win, loser, or draw, I've had a great time trying, and will report gleefully if in the next month I can get a colony going. have a great year, all!
Tim Boyd (tboydshirt in the forum)

[kim w.]

I'm right there with you. Know exactly how you feel. Year 6 for me.

[BillieJR]

I definitely can relate, too! I'm hoping those who have colonies here in my community, already, are gracious and sharing enough to not continue to add more housing so that those of us who don't have any yet can maybe have a better chance at starting our own colony this year. It's wonderful reading about the high numbers people have but I admit to being envious and jealous cuz I have none. Probably also feeling sorry for myself. Good luck everyone!

[rrmartins]

I definitely can relate, too! I'm hoping those who have colonies here in my community, already, are gracious and sharing enough to not continue to add more housing so that those of us who don't have any yet can maybe have a better chance at starting our own colony this year. It's wonderful reading about the high numbers people have but I admit to being envious and jealous cuz I have none. Probably also feeling sorry for myself. Good luck everyone!

Can you post a pic of your setup? If others have them, I would think you can have them also. Did you have FY checking out your housing after they fledged last year?

[rob]

this is my first year to try to get some PM to nest here,had a plastic barn. had some to land on the barn even stick there head inside but no takers. that was going on over a months time . so i tried some white plastic gourds with in a week i now have 5 nest building going on.
i have some questions
1. i have seen only one mature male and what looks like 3 - 5 females whats going on here?

2 will the birds that nest here return next year along the ones that hatch here?

i live in north alabama

[deancamp]

Great for you. Gourds are the preferred housing at my place too. The (sy) second year males look alot like the (asy) after second year females. Could very well be sy males. If they survive the trip to South America and back the successful nesting pairs will be back. Only a small percentage of the hatchlings return to the same colony, but usually return to the vicinity.

[cabin man]

I'm here in North central Ohio waiting my turn to get a shot at martins. I'm in my 3rd (or 4th) year trying in a decent location to get something started. I see that I can use the scout study to check subbies coming to Ohio from last year, and see that they should start showing up any day, but patience is a gift I don't possess in great quantity right now. I wish you all well in my outer voice and try to keep my secret inner voice from suggesting things like "Wouldn't it be nice if a tornado knocked down every house in the area but mine?!" Anyway, thanks to all the good advice I've been given and heeded. It's now up to the wind, rain, chance, and the mood of those 2oz birds to make my year of cutting trees, placing housing, and guarding holes pay off. Win, loser, or draw, I've had a great time trying, and will report gleefully if in the next month I can get a colony going. have a great year, all!
Tim Boyd (tboydshirt in the forum)

Tim. Pretty funny ‘inner voice!’ Keep trying. It’s worth it. I tried for 34 years before I got a nesting pair. Lots of ups and downs along the way. I adopted a ‘try till I die’ attitude. After all , if we stop trying, we’ll never get them. Play the dawn song. A lot. I’m sure that helped me. If you get a nice , calm night, I would let it play all night. As long as you don’t have any nesting pairs, I don’t think it hurts too much in regards to putting owls on your radar. I just would not make a habit of it. Be ‘choosey ‘
on the nights that you play it. I’m pretty sure that it helped me. Good luck. Rob

[rob]

I AM SORRY FOR MISLEADING anyone. After watching my birds for a while it occurred to me some
thing wasn't right about my birds if they where in fact purple martins.after more research and comparing pictures i have enough data
to support my conclusion that what i have nest building are tree swallows.what i saw was a bird dark on top almost completely
white underneath breeding another bird of the same color markings.
i guess i will not have any PM's this year.now i have seen a dark bird underneath and on top assuming that was in fact a PM
about 3 weeks ago but it didn't stay
what can i do next year to keep them out and will PM;s nest in the same rack?

[tboydshirt]

Thanks for the replies and I since could wait no longer so I put up the rest of the houses this morning. as for Billie JR's request here is a snapshot attached reduced to 420kb so it should hopefully appear. Zoom in to see a few swallow houses around the pond. still no subbies reported in my area or even in Ohio except one in Toledo.

[Birds]

If you get martins this year they will probably love that lake. Wish you the best of luck this year they.

[Dave Duit]

tboydshirt,
I wish you the best my friend. It took me 6-7 years for my first pair and I had everything going for location and all the bells and whistles. My public satellite location took 4 years and that was even better than my home location and set up. I hear ya, it takes a lot to just wait and see.