Purple Martin Forum

Hanover Bill, brent, flying-lowe Thanks all for your thoughts and encouragement. We're still struggling with our decision. Plans are still to close up. Yes, we have a hawk problem during the day and an owl problem at night. We have a cage on the trendsetter and guards on the T-14 and gourds. We mix ...

Dave, G Saner Thanks for sharing your experiences. We aren't really sure what to expect. There are not any managed colonies in the nearby area that we are aware of. We know where people have some housing up, but not managed, no predator guards, no winches to lower and check nests. Our birds are trai...

This is a difficult post to make. After 21 years of being martin landlords we are giving it up. We've enjoyed the martins and have put in lots of time, effort and love. This year we had our best martin year on record but it was also the hardest year for us as landlords. Our early birds arrived March...

Yes Necole it is a roost site, although some years not as big as others. It is near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Some early morning --around 5:15 a.m. or so -- check out the Doppler radar for that area. A good radar will show the roost ring. Small roosts can be found up and...

Necole We have a few birds left here, one very late nest at 6 days old. It's been a long, long season. The Wild Bird Rehab in St Louis have very competent people on staff, but they deal mainly with backyard sonbirds. Martins are extremely difficult to rehab. I've taken a few there myself over the ye...

PMDavid Hopefully they will be okay, the females should be able to keep them warm at night. The big question is how about the daytime weather and temperatures. Rain and cold will make it difficult for the females to feed themselves and their young, rain being the biggest threat. The more time spent ...

Thanks flyin-lowe! You backed me up on the wife's question. I told her just leave them. This is our 20th year and our 1st 100% capacity. Yep, 20+ sys porchin overnight. We have 46 compartments with 92 ASY and SY pairs sitting on eggs or chicks. I'm sure the sy porch sitters are scared to go in, espe...

Thanks flyin-lowe They do sit out all night, taking off before any daylight. There are no compartments open in the system they are roosting on. We've been having a lot of martins passing through, stopping for the night then moving on, but the last 4 days it seems like this same bunch has been coming...

This has been an unusual year for us. For the first time ever our trendsetter and gourd rack are completely full. The t-14 has only about 8 compartments that aren't claimed, not all the claimed compartments have nests though. That all sounds wonderful. But what to do with the dozen extra martins tha...

Stay with the same size cable. Stainless is more flexible than galvanized and lasts longer without the rust. If your system came with t he 350lb brake, keep, if 500lb better. You are doing a stright pull up and down pole and you do not want anything to fall on your head while loaded with birds, nest...

GeneP This could be interesting. The robin shouldn't bother the martins. I have lots of robins nesting near my martins immediate area. One loves the gutter elbow on the neighbors house. Never had one try to nest on the martin housing though. The upside for the robin is the lucrative availability of ...

Our first martins of the season showed up yesterday. Two females and one male. So happy. Today another female joined the group. It's the first time we've ever had more females than males to start the season. A little unusual for us. The question is, does anyone think that advancing males may have pe...

rrmartins That wooden T-14 offers excellent protection from the cold. Here in Illinois, our T-14 has seen many early martins through cold and snow. We do put handwarmers under the pine needles, usually late afternoon. We also put in a small pile of mealworms inside, up in front, not in the way of th...

Trishy Glad the straw man is working. Our site is also surrounded by trees. We are an 'in-town' site.. Flyways are the cross streets and across back yards. However, the martins have been in this neighborhood for years, even before we moved here. Yes, coopers hawks are a problem. Look closely at the ...

Done!
Took less than a minute.
Will do again tomorrow.

And it was totally painless!!
Good luck!

Judy

Ed You are on the right track. Now is a great time to accustom your birds to tray feeding if they are already taking oyster shells/ eggshells. We supplemental feed in the spring using the b&b. We've been doing it for some years, our birds know and new ones learn quickly. We are feeding now because o...

Dave NWS says we have been and will continue to be 10°-15° above normal for this time of year. We went from a cold, wet spring to this. The past few years we have had a cold snap in the early middle part of May, which seemed to always hit right when eggs were hatching. (Blackberry winter) We lost do...

Hello colliemom and fellow Illinois landlord. You've had a rough morning. GHO will keep coming back. First thing you need is a cage to protect your gourds. It's the only way to protect the martins. Search on this forum, there is plenty of info. Kathy F from Missouri has lived the nightmare that you ...

Congrats Mick!!!

Yeah, you can tell by the noise. Everyone gets all worked up.

Very noisy here also. Thought I saw a sy female but no positive I'D. Sharon says she has a SY male hang around. Appears to be a SY push starting.

Thanks for giving us the heads up.

Martins get pretty protective when they have eggs and young. They might think the new guy will threaten the young. Sub-adult males are notorious for that. So now might not the time to add a decoy on or near the housing. Personally, I don't have have decoys near the housing. I live in an urban settin...