Martins

MY mother loves her Martins. She has two houses and a bunch of plastic gourds up. The scouts showed up last week. Had 5 flying around Saturday evening. She likes those birds.

Good deal. I love having them around too. My first ones showed up on 2/12 this year. I noticed Sunday afternoon that I had between 15-20 now.

Saw some scouts last week. They haven't been back but they will.

Is that why people have gourds hanging? I knew they were for birds, but are they always for martins?

This place makes me feel like such a city slicker...

Martin gourds have been around for a long time as nesting places for the martins. I know of no other use for them hanging. It is kinda hard to find good gourds, you don't need the real big ones, and you need some with a good thick hard shell so they will last a lot of years, or plastic.
Up till about 20 years ago I had a lot of birds, then one day I killed two chicken snakes that had climbed into the nest and had eat a bunch of chicks and eggs. I had 5 - 16 hole aluminum houses and probably 20 or so gourds, bunch of birds. After I killed those snakes I have not had another martin. I even took the houses down and clorox and washed them out, thinking there might have been some kind of scent or something. The houses are still up, but no birds.

Don't have any gourds up, but I do have a bat house up near my orchard. I *think* I have at least 1 or 2 bats setting up shop in it...hard to tell, for sure, this early on. Once I get some bats established, I might look at adding some gourds on the other end of the orchard.

If they are hung in clusters, yes they are for Martins. I have some hung solo on fence posts for Bluebirds and/or Tree Swallows.



If the shoe fits....... I'm trying to help teach you the way of the dirt road.

I built a cypress bat house 20 years ago and put it up at the head of our pond. I built a big one too, with plans I got from somewhere. Supposed to hold 500 bats. If that sucker has ever held one, it's news to me.

Yep...whether or not you actually get bats to move into a house is way iffier than with Martins. I see a couple in the evenings around mine, and I think I can sometimes hear some scrabbling around up there (it's 20' up), but I've yet to actually see any coming out of it to hunt.

Several years ago we had a snake get in the house too. Made me so mad that I filled that individual box up with a clip full of .22's. Had birds use the house the next year with no issues. How they can climb a 2" steel post is beyond me, but, I try to add a little grease to the post every year after hatching. Working so far....

Same thing happened with my boxes. I've killed 3 chicken snakes out of them. I thought they were getting in the house by a tree and cut the limbs. Then found out that they can also climb the pole.

Crazy I know but I have watched the dang things climb poles, small trees and branches that go straight up! I hate a chicken snake and battle them constantly in my coop.

There is some kind of something still there. I don't know what it is, but I know people here who have had snake problems or owl problems and lost their Martins. They NEVER get them back. I don't what they know/see/smell that we don't, but there's something there.

I have electric predator guards on all my gourd racks. A 15 joule 200 mile electric fence charger powers it. A snake won't cross it.

Put out few plastic egg's or golf ball's on ground or near or in nest box