I built the Martin House a few years ago. Well....I should call it the sparrows, wrens and chickadees house. Nary a martin in site. Oh well.
But I also looked out this AM and saw a squirrel....bastages!!....go in 1 of the holes. How would you prevent this?
I was thinking about looking around for SS washers that have an ID that'll fit the birds, but not the rats that can get through. McMasterCarr maybe?? (of course I'll check the Cornell School of Ornithology to get the correct ID beforehand). Since the individual doors are curved somewhat, do they make large size washers that are slightly curved?
Anyone else built it? If so, how are you keeping the bastages out??
(It does look much better in real life...the snap of a .jpg file seems to wash out some of the colors)
(02-07-2025, 08:56 AM)Randy C Wrote: Why don’t you just put some type of predator guard on the pole so the bastages can’t climb the pole???
Well I thought about that, but my wife has a plant that climbs up the pole and flowers (I forget the name of the vine now). I would think once the plant grows up to any shield I put on the pole, it'll just grow outwards and eventually up and over the shield, giving a path for the squirrels.
02-07-2025, 01:38 PM (This post was last modified: 02-08-2025, 06:33 AM by fredhargis.)
Not knowing if you're in town or not....I guess you can't shoot it? Otherwise they only thing I've ever tried that worked was a baffle on the pole, which you can't do I guess. What about putting the baffle right under the bird house?
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(02-07-2025, 09:00 AM)Dumb_Polack Wrote: Well I thought about that, but my wife has a plant that climbs up the pole and flowers (I forget the name of the vine now). I would think once the plant grows up to any shield I put on the pole, it'll just grow outwards and eventually up and over the shield, giving a path for the squirrels.
Squirrels aren’t the only thing you have to worry about either. Snakes can climb the pole easily and the washer will not prevent them from getting into the bird houses. I would put the predator guard up higher on the pole so that your wife’s climbing flowers don’t go that high up.
By the way, your house looks very nice! I put up a purple Martin pole with plastic gourds in December and am hoping to attract some birds this year although I understand you might not get any birds the first year.
Thanks for linking the squirrel video. But about the Martin house—do you even have martins in your neighborhood? Don’t they only live near swampy areas?
(02-08-2025, 11:09 PM)Petertaylor Wrote: Thanks for linking the squirrel video. But about the Martin house—do you even have martins in your neighborhood? Don’t they only live near swampy areas?
Yes, we're in Mass and I haven't seen any but I do see quite a few martin houses, so we must have them no?
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