Purple Martin Forum

Hi Everyone, My name's Ken Buker from Silverlake, WA. I'm an active martin enthusiast with a purple martin colony at my Silver lake home. My colony started in 2004 from a single pair of SY birds and has grown to over 110 pairs of martins during the 2018 and 2019 seasons fledging nearly 400 young mar...

Steve, I have always admired and enjoyed your post on the forum. Fortunately here in Washington state we don't deal with rat snakes or any other snake that climbs poles so no netting required. I do use predator guards on all my racks to detour ground predators like squirrels, racoons, and the like. ...

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Hello all, It’s been awhile since I’ve posted to the forum. Check in periodically and see what’s new, but decided I would write a short piece from the Pacific Northwest. Some forum regulars might recall my excitement, when after many years of trying I finally attracted martins to my Silver Lake back...

Hello All, Here is a final season report from my purple martin colony located at Silver Lake, WA. My last young martin fledged this morning (8/23) and as of late evening there are no martins seen or heard. This lone survivor is a story in itself and a true tribute to the parental instinct of our bel...

Hi Mary, Have not heard from you since an earlier post. Just wondering if you successfully attracted martins this season and if you had better luck with your new excluder gourds. We banded 151 young martins at my Silver Lake colony July 9th and are planning another day the 21st. Should be about that...

Hi Mary, I do use predator guards on my poles. Raccoons, stray cats and squirrels are probably my greatest concern from the ground. In my area I also use owl detour ant (owl guards) since in 2006 I nearly lost my entire (13 pair) colony as a result of an owl. My colony was only three years new at th...

Hi Mary, One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post is: when I received my excluder gourds after attaching the first porch (external/internal), I didn’t like the placement in relation to the entrance. The gourds are marked with a starter dimple at the recommended position for mounting them, bu...

Hi Mary, Contrary to what you were told, with artificial gourds pre-nest material is still recommended because they just are not designed with a good gripping surface below the entrance, and are somewhat awkward for a martin to position themselves for exiting especially until there's a base establis...

Hi Mary, I Haven’t checked into the forum for awhile so just caught your post this afternoon. Wonderful to hear from other NW enthusiast on occasion. I just purchased a dozen of the new excluder gourds this spring. The ones I have are the modified excluder entrance. I too was a little reluctant abou...

Hi Louise, You are correct, the Modified EGM entrance. I will take the suggestion about moving the porches up. That makes sense to me, at least on a couple and see what happens. As a followup, do you have the owl guards, and did moving the porch up impact their installation? I might also just wait a...

Hi Everyone, It's been awhile since I've posted to the forum but learned long ago there is no better place to ask for feedback and information. Just purchased a dozen Excluder gourds for this season and would like to know how other colonies have accepted them. My colony was 85 pair strong last seaso...

Hello Debbie, It has been a while but I posted my experience of becoming a martin landlord after 30+ years trying back in 2005. Rather than rewrite it I attached the following link so you can access it in my forum post archives. http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695&highlight= Hope y...

Hello All, It saddened me to learn of the passing on March 2, 2013 of a friend and mentor here in the Pacific Northwest, David R. Fouts. Dave played a crucial role during the last 3 decades in Purple Martin recovery efforts in the Pacific Northwest. He certainly was instrumental in providing me the ...

Hi Mike, Having experienced similar fate in 2006, I can assure you, now that the great horned owl has experienced success he will continue making nightly visits until he finally is unsuccessful or your martins abandon the colony site. I found that the martins are very adaptable and will learn to use...

Here at my Silver Lake, Washington colony in the Pacific Northwest It’s in the peak of fledging season with dozens of young birds fledging and anxious parents scolding and coaxing youngsters out of their cavities almost hourly. It becomes especially chaotic in the morning as they begin gathering on ...

Hi Diane, I thought I would add one more comment to the many terrific ones already provided. There is a huge difference between reasons for an unsuccessful season. Should your SY pair fail to fledge young due to causes that are normally beyond their control (ie; un fertile eggs, lack of food for fee...

Hi Ryan, The answer to your question is a story in itself. It took me over 30 years to finally attract that SY pair to my back yard. I must admit that I became really serious about it in the mid 90’s after finding and observing a couple of small colonies along the lower Columbia River. A friend from...

Greetings All martin enthusiast, As I’ve done for the last few years, I wanted to post a 2012 update on status of my western martin colony at Silver Lake, Washington. This season started out with a bang. Great weather during late April and the first half of May provided the makings of what looked li...