Purple Martin Forum

Bad storm rolled thru south Florida yesterday afternoon around 2:30; horizontal rain with winds over 60 mph and lots of lightning. Came up so fast I wasn't able to lower my racks. Two withstood the blast but I lost Rack 1. It and its 6 gourds hit the ground and only one gourd remained attached to th...

Checked my colony's progress yesterday. Rack 1 has eggs in all six gourds; 4 chicks and 1 egg in a gourd, 5 eggs each in 4 gourds and 1 gourd with 6 eggs. Count went from 21 eggs last week to 27 eggs and 1 chick this check with 100% occupancy. Rack 2 has eggs in 16 gourds (67%) and the count went fr...

My step-daughter helped me today with our 3rd check. Bless her heart; having someone to take notes while I move from gourd to gourd dictating observations surely speed things up. Anyway, 91 eggs counted today; up from 34 last week. Still have only 21 of my 54 gourds with eggs - 39%. Not what I would...

kegger,
Where in the hell is Awesome, Florida? Living in this state since 1965 and have yet to visit this lovely township. Glad to hear your nesting is underway.
Mike

Got eggs! Lowered my 3 racks today. Rack 1 had 2 gourds with a total of 8 eggs ( 1 with 5 and 1 with 3) and 4 good but empty nests. Rack 2 had a total of 9 eggs scattered in 3 gourds (4, 4 and 1), 12 empty but good nests and 9 gourds with maybes and/or nadas. Rack 3 had 17 total eggs in 5 gourds (4,...

Dropped my three racks this past Sunday. Rack 1 - 3 nests, 2 - maybes, 1 - nada. Rack 2 - 16 nests, 4 - maybes, 4 - nadas. Rack 3 - 9 nests, 4 - maybes, 11 nadas. Racks 1 and 2 contain S & K B011s. Rack 3 is my latest rack, 24 Troyer Horizontals with tunnels and porches. It seems to be getting a lot...

I suspected nest building had begun a few days ago at my racks but not quite sure. Today I sat and watched females going to the ground, selecting the proper pine needle or the exact dead live/laurel oak leaf and carrying it to their gourd. All this done by many ladies while the guys supervised from ...

desonyay, Guess I'll give decoys a try if Mr. Cooper makes another visit. Your phonetic spelling of a true, genuine, authentic coonass moniker makes me smile. Brings back memories of my LSU days and the friends I met whose home towns were south of I-10. Lots of Cajuns whom all had warm, friendly per...

On 2/3 I first observed the hawk. It was on the ground beneath my racks mantling its kill that happened to be a martin. I sighted the hawk perched in an oak on my property on 2/5. On the mornings of 2/4, 6, 7, 10 and 12, I actually had to flush this persistent rascal from one of my three racks! Mayb...

SSMartin, Peregrines and merlins winter in Florida. Sharp-shinned hawk and Coopers also winter here. I believe where I'm located in Florida is just within Mr. Cooper's year-around range. If you're a central or north Florida resident, you're in year-around Coopers Hawk range. No, I've yet to see my b...

Since my 2/6 post (and thanks for all the advice and good will), Mr. Coop and I have come to an understanding. I'm an early riser. So now I'm in my chair nearby my colony at about 6AM enjoying my coffee and listening to my birds in their gourds burble and sing amongst one another. It's dark; nightti...

I'm still chewing on my Coopers Hawk situation. I was watching my colony at 6 this morning. This is before the "crack of dawn." Still dark. Could hear martin noises from the gourds. At 6:30, just before I could distinguish color, Mr. Cooper swooped in and landed on Rack 1. Man, the bird's quick and ...

I tried wood shavings in some of my gourds my first season. No more. They held moisture, swelled and tended to plug the drain holes. I stick with slash pine needles for "pre-nesting" and let Momma do the remainder of setting up shop.
Happy Martining, Mike

Please give me patience; I'm gonna ramble. This AM I strolled out to my racks to check my birds. There was a Coopers Hawk perched on a gourd on Rack 1. I had my bike helmet in one had and my wallet in the other. So I flipped my wallet up, flushed the hawk. It flew to an oak on the east side of my pr...

So, I'm in my chair this evening watching my birds sky-dance before coming into the gourds and Mr. Cooper flies in and lands on the perch above Rack #1!! Can't help but think this is the same bird that made a kill earlier. I leave my chair and approach my colony, walk directly under this rack and th...

To you martin crooks, Be on the lookout Steve!!! Those PMCs (purple martin crooks) are on the prowl. You guys are hilarious but I know where you're coming from. I thinks Steve's got 17 racks in his colony and his buddy close by has a bunch more. Those guys are martin-magnets and martin-whisperers. L...

I've had a similar situation with my horizontals. I have 24 on my latest rack. The caps don't blow off but can be hard to thread onto the gourd. I have caps of 2 markings; one works well, the other I struggle with without "cross-threading." I deal with this and just chalk it up to a simple misery th...

Welcome Austin, I got into this martin thing recently and this season will be my 4th. Be prepared to get "hooked." I raised my 3 racks (54 gourds total) toward the end of December and was as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof until I saw my first returns on the 16th of this month. I really enjoy sitti...

Lot's of " ifs" here. If the triangular pole is in a sleeve set in concrete, I would check and see that the inside diameter of the round pole is large enough to slide over the triangular pole. If so I would slide the round pole over the triangular pole already set in a sleeve in concrete, drill a ho...

Coolwhips, Dick Doll and flyin-lowe, Should I assume all the hawks you folks refer to are accipiters? A peregrine or merlin could catch a martin; a broad winged hawk, not so much. I have never seen either of the first two over my colonies and the red tails and red shoulders that are very common in m...