The beginning...

This was just delivered to my house-

stelco, you out there? You'll know what this is for.

It looks like a tube for a concrete footing?

Yup! I had a large Martin House that I bought years ago. I had it reconditioned last year and then it was painted. My husband came up with some sort of a design to get it up wherein which I will be able to raise and lower it by myself. We want it at about 20' from the ground. I chose the location and he is ordering parts to be able to begin to install it. This was the first "part" that was delivered. I think he had a telescoping pole manufactured to spec for me. The Martin House I have weighs a good 70 lbs maybe more. Each nesting compartment opens for cleaning and monitoring. I want this up by fall so that maybe... just maybe... next spring or the spring after some Martins will find me.

I even tried cheating and you've got me! Are you building a custom gourd rack system?

You were posting as I was looking. I'd love to see what the design is!

Nope, no custom gourd rack system.

That form is for a concrete footing just like joepyeweed guessed.

That form will be what is sunk into the ground and concrete will be poured around the permanent pole.

Mark, I have no idea what his design is and for a while there I was beginning to wonder if he even had one or if he was "winging" it until this was delivered this morning. Evidently, he does have some sort of a master scheme. The Martin House I have is massive. We've got high winds in this area and it is going to have to be installed properly or it will come crashing down in soem of these wind gusts that can hit 80mph and above. I am now anxiously waiting to see what the end result looks like. My husband has designed some pretty impressive structures but he's never created a mounting system for a Martin House before. He wanted to be able to design something that was structurally sound and affordable to build. Me on the other hand, I just wanted him to make sure that the integrity of what ever he designed wasn't able to be compromised lest I end up with babies all over my front yard and the Martin House in fragments.

My curiosity is primarily in just how the house can be raised and lowered. Does this house have a center hole, so that it could be mounted on a pole and raised and lowered with a winch system? So many old wooden houses were designed to be used on tilt poles. Nest checks cannot be done on housing mounted on a tilt pole. The other heavy wooden housing is the T-14 and the Bob Buskas North Star. These are both quality houses that can be raised and lowered on a stationary pole.

I have no idea what he is doing but he knows a tilt pole is a no go. I know I heard him talking to my Dad and he was discussing a telescoping pole but I was too busy to pay attention. When I had the house picked up to be restored, he went out and talked to the guy and he asked that a modification be made to the base of the house. It looks as if there is now a hole to be able to accommodate something or other that will be up through the middle. I'll take photos of his finished product but he promised me that I would be able to raise and lower it by myself and that it wouldn't be a tilt design but straight up and down. .

I don't understand - you gotta have a form?
I just dig the hole, set the bottom section of the telescoping pole in there on top of a flat rock, pour in a bag of cement mix, add water, and let the concrete set up.

Husband is anal? Beats me what he's thinking.

Well, whatever flicks his Bic.
Enjoy the martins - I love mine!!! Have two 12-hole houses on poles by the pond - I can sit on the front porch and watch 'em gliding in, swooping down along the surface to take a drink on the wing, etc..
You're a bit late getting it up this year, though - they usually arrive here 10 March. We had reports from around the state of them starving to death, due to cooler-than normal spring with less insect activity than is typical for most springs.

I try to remember to take mine down or at least drop them low enough that the cats serve as some degree of deterrent to the infernal starlings & English sparrows nesting/roosting in them after the martins leave in late summer.

Ya, I know. Better late than never. That's why I really want to get it up so that it might be spotted for next season or the season after.

I don't know if you read the other thread by stelco but he addressed the issue of them starving to death with the cooler than normal springs. I admit it, I'd be at the pet shop ordering crickets and meal worms by the 100's to toss up in the air for them.

Cats I don't allow around here if possible but we've got an air gun and if the HOSPs try to take up residency after any Martin babies fledge, they will be no more. I've chosen a site for this Martin House that is about 50' from a second story window. It will be at a perfect height given our ceiling heights in this house are 10' and above. My tolerance of them is zero at this point in my life.

I do pretty much what Lucky does, but I add a ground socket rather than pouring concrete directly around the pole. A bolt through the socket allows you to notch the bottom of your pole and when inserted will "snap" over the bolt, keeping the pole from rotating. Then the pole can be removed in winter if desired and if the pole is made of wood or metal it can be inspected for rust or rot.

Well, if I had any say in the matter, there wouldn't be any cats here, either - but I'm not in charge, and my wife has this thing about pets. Currently have 2(used to be 3, but one disappeared, and, no, I had nothing to do with that - I figure coyotes gotta eat, too) outdoor cats - declawed on the front, as they were originally going to be indoor critters, but (fortunately for me) one of 'em never would use the litter box, and since they never could figure out which one it was, they all went out. They're voracious hunters. I rarely see much evidence of mice/vole captures, but find remains of birds in the yard(Grrrr.) and it's very common to step out the front door every summer morning to find one or two leopard frogs lying on the welcome mat, sans their rear legs, going 'Help me....', like Vincent Price, in 'The Fly'. I help them right over to the pond and pitch them in to the catfish.

I didn't notice any dead martins around my place, but received one batch for necropsy examination, and had a call from my buddy who's the head biologist for KY Dept. of Fish & Wildlife Resources, about other reported mortalities around the state.

What did you find in that batch?

Cold spell deaths really don't usually require a necropsy. Four days of no flying insects, after a long trip from Brazil, leaves them without enough muscle to hunt. The bodies are usually found crammed into compartments for warmth. Only emergency feeding can save most colonies during these weather events. A necropsy generally finds an underweight bird with nothing in its stomach.

Like I said, "I'd be at the pet shop ordering crickets and meal worms by the 100's to toss up in the air for them." I can't stand to have any of my critters going without.

Say stelco, how did you know to start tossing insects up in the air? I've been thinking about that and I am afraid to say I probably wouldn't have caught the early warning signs to know to do something like that. No, I know I wouldn't have.

I’ve never had to train or maintain a Martin colony during a cold weather event. Mary is THE BEST in the State of Michigan and much of the Midwest. The PMCA has a great forum and lots of information. It is well worth the membership if you want to get their magazine and membership discounts. Here are some links that get you through tossing crickets to a scrambled egg recipe, I think. If a piece is missing, let me know. You can join the forum without being a member the last time I checked.

http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2742

http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3244&highlight=

Please, call me Mark! ;-)

Sorry Mark. I get hung up between e-mail and forum so I generally revert to user names.

I ordered one of my HOSP traps from purplemartin.org. They had a nice selection.

Revisiting.
No findings other than what stelco suggested we'd find.
Empty GI tracts, depletion of body fat stores, and muscle wasting.

I didn't really expect to find anything more, but people always think - poisoning, West Nile virus, etc., so we have to look in order to keep the hysteria level down.