|
Do you enjoy bird-watching? If so, why not bring them to your yard? Purple Martins are both enjoyable to watch and beneficial to have around. The eat thousands of flying insects each day.
Purple Martins have come to depend on humans to help provide safe and necessary homes while they visit in North America. While they migrate between North America and South America, they are believed to return each year to the nesting place they were born in. If they can find housing, they stay, if they cannot, they must move on to another location to nest. Therefore, starting and maintaining a colony requires dedication and commitment. Once you colony is as large as you care to make it you must still maintain it in order to continue to attract your established birds.
Gourds are an ideal colony housing alternative. They are strong and reliable and require only a small amount of maintenance. Cleaning out in the fall by lowering the rack is made easier still by the snap in and out doors of the Natureline plastic eleven inch gourds. You can replace the standard doors with solid doors and keep them clean all winter. Then in late February, you replace the solid doors with your starling-resistant crescent or oblong doors, raise it back into the air and wait for your first scouts to arrive. Once the scouts and new arrivals move in, and get their nests built, you can either leave the starling resistant holes in place or change them out for the traditional round hole. If starlings are not a problem in your area, then the round holes are all that are required. If starlings are a problem and your martins have begun to nest, then leaving the oblong or crescent doors in place is preferred.
There are vents in the top of the gourds that can be adjusted if necessary for air flow. There are drainage holes in the bottom to allow excess moisture to escape. These gourds are ideal for starting new colonies as well as adding to existing houses or other gourd systems.
There are two style racks available. A single pole with eight gourds mounted in a spiral design around it or the Natureline rack that holds either eight or sixteen gourds that can be raised and lowered by a pulley system.
Click on these links for additional information on gourds and rack systems.
|
|
