First time landlord, need help

[trgreg21]

I am trying to attract purple martins for the first time this year. I have purchased the white plastic guords and have installed them back in February. I have several martins going in and out of the new houses but I don't notice any staying like you see in other houses. They will go in the house and I will see them with heads out and then they will leave. What are they doing? Here at work they are sitting all on the guords and you see them al the time. At my house, however, I only see them coming and going. Am I doing something wrong or what?

[Terry Suchma]

Hello,

Tell us where you live, Trgrg. It will help to acertain what part of the PM season you are in at this time at your location.

Never give up!

Terry

[trgreg21]

I live in the central part of Mississippi

[Terry Suchma]

Dear Trgreg,

In Central MS, martin scouts (the adult martins) arrive on or around traditionally about the second week in February.

The adult martins' migration north is about six weeks long.

So, from the middle of February to the first of April, the adults come to your area. This may or may not be your martins. Since martins are bonded to the same colonies from year to year where they have breed successfully in the past, these are probably not your martins yet :cry:.

Subadult martin migration begins six weeks AFTER the adult martins.

So, from the first of Arpil to the middle of May, this is really your window of opportunity, Trgreg.

So, with this being the first week in April, you have almost five weeks or slightly longer for the subadults to find your colony site.

Again, MS is a great place for martins. Good luck! I am sure that if you have

1. good, open location near a watershed area (within a mile or so)
2. a good house
3. a good landlord
4. good management skills

you will experience martins this season.

Keep us posted!

Terry

[trgreg21]

I live in the city limits but my back fence butts up to the county. There is a big open, grassy field behind me with a small pond in it. Looks like it would be a real good place for a martin to want to stay. I watch the martins from another colony about 200 or 300 yeard away flying around the field all of the time.

[Terry Suchma]

Trgreg,

Opps!

Now, that I know something, I can see there could be a problem for you.

Indeed! You do have a great place for the martins--that is the good news.

The bad news is that there is a competing colony 2-300 yards away.

That tells me something.

It tells me that the other landlord has the edge in martins and all self respecting martins will want to be at THAT colony rather than begin a new colony in a PM ghost town with no residents.

It takes a very courageous pioneering martin, usually a subadult martin to stake out a compartment in a PM ghost town.

Very important! Do you know this other landlord?

If you do, I hope you know him well and can ask a big favor of him.

If he is a magnanimous mentor type, he will want to help you to succeed. If this is the case, and I truly hope it is, ask him if he would close off some of his compartments at his colony site, in effect, forcing some birds to your site to nest and breed.

It is a very difficult thing for many landlords to share their birds. Many times, the number of birds that a landlord has is part of their bragging rights. I know this may not be a diplomatic thing to say, but I have seen it over the year.

However, that being said (or written ) by the same token, there are also a tremendous number of good hearted, magnanimous landlords that want to see their mentees success and will do almost anything to help that be accomplished.

When and if you finally get martins, what will happen is that your two colonies will trade and feed off each other as far as birds nesting and breeding. Your birds will go there for mates and stay and so will some of his birds, in turn, visit and nest and breed at your site. In essence, the two colonies, though entirely separate, will be one colony only separated by a few hundred yards.

So, while it may be a difficult thing to limit his colony for a year or two, really, it is in the best interest of the nearby martin landlord to share his birds. Your colony will infuse new blood into his colony and help to sustain it for the future. Naturely, his will do the same for you future colony.

Visit the landlords and see what happens and see if he cooperates.

Terry