Purple Martin Forum

Hi glfriend,
Congrats on your first martin. I will pray for a mate to show up and maybe start a colony.

Hi Laura,
Congrats on your SY male. He sure is handsome.

Hi Steve,
This is great news. If the weather holds to be cooperative this year and the population appearing to be on an upswing; we may have made a good improvement on the overall population.

Hi Kegger, Great question. Only about 15% of those babies that hatched out and fledged last season will return to their original colony. Also, This young son would most likely return about 6 weeks after the older parents. The parents are known as ASY or after second year martins. The son or youngste...

Super pic and nice nest. Congrats.

Hi Bret,
Awesome that you are eliminating sparrows and starlings. It is nice to see new landlords like you taking responsibility in their new colony.

Your other martins will be arriving within a few days, so I would open up.

Congrats Brett. The first few years of being a new landlord are critical. I'm sure you will be fine, but now is when you do everything to make their stay safe and healthy. You will be playing the numbers game in the years ahead. 10-15% of the babies will come back to your new colony each year. Best ...

From what I have gathered, you would be better of with the T6. T51 Temper T51 treatment bakes the casting at a low-temperature to artificial age it. The temperature range is between 440˚F (227°C). The casting is heated in the oven for 3-5 hours and then allowed to cool naturally. The low temperature...

Thanks Matt for the update video. Neat to see that great minds think alike. Great design. In the future if I decide to go over the 100 cavity mark, I may buy a few of these.

It always blows my mind when I see eggs way down south and ASY martins are just arriving for migration in South Dakota. It shows us how spread out and over time the cycle really takes place.

Hi ToyinPA, You mentioned hummingbirds and that got me to thinking about an aspect of hummingbirds some people are not aware. To help save hummingbirds in the future here is a tid bit of info: Hummingbirds may fall into a state of stupor, seeming unconciousness on the ground during cold mornings and...

Hi Habsboy,
The ASY martins will be arriving right now at your location In Ontario according to this years migration map. The SY younger martins will arrive 5-6 weeks later. But this year, it appears everything is about 7-10 early.

Nice video dsonyay. The martins look happy and healthy. Matt. F, I was thinking the same thing when you mentioned if Chirpy would ever make a colony style housing using the chirpy compartments.

Great pictures and it was good to see you had owl guards on the fronts of the porches. Nice work.

Hi Keith, If the nests you are pulling out are twigs and very little else , it is probably a Wren. If the nest is packed full from the floor to the ceiling and it has a small hole tunnel in the middle of the nest and it has a small pocket of space a few inches inside that hole tunnel it is a sparrow...

That is a great price for the plastic sheets.

Hi mwren, I heard about the terrible weather down south. It has been rainy and cold here in central Iowa for the arrival of my lone ASY male. No others have arrived, but I expect that they will be sure to show up soon. I have been feeding him crickets, like I do every year at the beginning of the se...

Thanks Tim for the good words. My single ASY male is eating crickets inside compartment #51. This summer I would like to come down to Purple Martin Lake and do some bird watching with you. Best of luck this season.
Dave

Probably the best homemade martin houses I have ever seen.. Excellent work and well thought out.