Isn't that marvelous?? What great entertainment you've created for yourselves, and I'm sure the pms are most grateful for the gourds. Here's my dumb question for the day: how do you make sure other birds don't attempt to use the nests, especially before the pms arrive for the year?

Fascinating. I enjoyed seeing the videos after reading your posts about the gourds, eggs and fledglings. Why do only some gourds have perches? Why do the perching birds lift up one wing occasionally?

Sjerin, I try to have all the gourds hung by April 15; the birds usually arrive around or after the 23rd. I make pre-nests with cedar shavings and a light sprinkling of Sevin dust. That gets rid of any parasites they may have on them when they arrive.

I close off all the entry holes with duct tape and do not open them until the PMs arrive. The biggest danger to the PMs, Tree Swallows (TS), Chickadees, Bluebirds (BB), Nuthatches, Woodpeckers - and all cavity nesters - is the non-native English House Sparrows and European Starlings. Thankfully the starlings nest (somewhere else) before the PMs arrive and have never shown interest in my gourds. I do have a starling nest box trap, just in case. In 13 years I've trapped exactly two starlings, and they were when we lived on the base.

I do not allow English House Sparrows (HOSP) to nest anywhere near my birds. I trap - it is legal - year round. Because of this diligence I have very high fledge stats and seldom see a HOSP.

Tree Swallows would like to nest in the gourds, but they are not colony birds. One pair of TSs would claim all 15 gourds and not let another bird near them. They are also a protected native species, but their habits are easy to control and turn around to the PMs advantage.

I set a Tree Swallow/Bluebird box 35 ft. from the PM rack. The TSs take to it and don't look at the PM gourds again. Since 35' is well within the range they protect from other TSs, they will not let another TS anywhere near the PMs. It's called the TS/BB/PM protocol. You can have all three species nesting in a 100' area; and not threatening one another simply by setting two BB boxes on either side of the PM pole, one 35' away and one 50' away in the opposite direction.

I've never been lucky enough to attract a pair of Bluebirds, but "someday!" I always have a pair of TSs in the box, and sometimes a pair of chickadees!

Fun2BHere - Some of the gourds do not have porches because I've not been able to get them all installed yet! LOL I hope to play "catch up" this winter and get more of the gourds, and some of my natural gourds (their favorites!) modified and more porches added. The birds love the porches; those gourds are the first claimed and the most vigorously protected.

The ones lifting their wings are cleaning their feathers. They are rather ragged by the time all the young fledge. If you see them twisting their heads all around and into weird contortions, they are exposing the skin to the sun so any mites will crawl down to the chests or wings so they can groom them off.

I use Sevin to control the mites in the nests, but they still pick them up. It's just part of bird life. I can't lower the rack anymore now until all the chicks fledge so they are on their own.