The PMCA continues to celebrate our 35th Anniversary. For the 3rd installment of the Landlord Spotlight, we would like to introduce Mark Anderson who lives in Tontitown, AR.
How long have you been a landlord? Since 2013
How did you get started? I had a mentor who had three 24 apartment Trio houses for over 20 years. His brother-in-law had a Trio apartment he didn’t want so I was gifted my first house.
How many houses/gourds do you have? In addition to the original 24-room Castle, I added a 12-gourd rack and then a couple of years later added a 24-gourd rack, however, I have just 18 gourds on it so far. In total, I have 54 homes for my martins.
Tell us more about your landlord experience.
In my first year, I attracted 2 pairs, then 5 pairs in year 2, and 12 pairs in year 3. In year 4 I jumped to 25, and today I hover around 30- 40 nesting pairs depending on the year.
I do have my share of battles to fight. We get a lot of pressure from starlings which requires daily and constant attention. I trap about 40 starlings a year and am forced to shoot another 60
I also caught a rat snake on one of my poles. Luckily, I happened to be sitting on the porch that evening and saw him just in time. I got to him before he did any harm. Since then I use bird netting as a snake deterrent.
With this many adult birds and the massive amount of babies, I have my share of fatalities and that is the worst part. I typically lose 3-4 adults each year, and 4-6 throughout nesting times. I don’t know if my mortality rate is normal, or if I have a problem, but I do my best for them and the joy of having a large colony outweighs the loss. I also have to remind myself they are wild animals and if they weren’t with me they would be somewhere else facing similar issues. I wish they arrived a month later and left a month later, so the early spring cold was less of a risk.
Interestingly I typically get 5-6 eggs per gourd whereas I only get 3-4 in the trio apartments. Somehow they know to lay more eggs in a bigger space. Maybe I am dreaming that but I can swear that they lay more eggs in the gourds.
Looking to finish out the 24 unit rack with the last 6 gourds this season and will likely transition every door and gourd to starling resistant holes over time in the future. After that, I will have to make a decision on adding another pole and expanding or being content with what I have now.
My location is ideal with big open areas with pasture and fields in every direction with ponds for water sources nearby. They seem to like it here and I like having them. There is nothing better than hearing the martins in the early morning or enjoying them right at dusk as they come in for the night.
-Mark Anderson
If you are a landlord and want to share your story, please email [email protected].
Image is from a PMCA research site.