Purple Martin Forum

It was a very nice event and I learned a lot. I got lucky enough to win a Troyer Horizontal gourd too! I already have it up. I also bought a gourd from Mr Wood and it is about 70% done. waiting on the tunnel and access port to arrive in the mail. This is my first year having a setup and I put the p...

Beautiful photos Ray, as always! I especially love that last one at sunset. I have been enjoying 50 to 60 birds each morning until the last week. Most have left now but still have about 10 or so each day as I still have one gourd nest to fledge. It has been a wonderful martin season for us.

Beautiful photos Ray! I have tried to capture a photo like yours with martins in flight around the racks but so far no luck. I too lost many eggs during that same time period but still have a nice colony raising their babies.

Hi Karen and Welcome to the forum :) You have come to the right place for information, answers, and tips. It sounds like you are doing every thing right to attract Purple Martins especially adding those gourds under your PM house and modifying those compartments. I to made many changes and moved my ...

Hi Brenda Congratulations and Good Luck with your endeavor! It is wonderful of you to volunteer to under take such a task. Maybe others will see your efforts and offer to help and become passionate about hosting Purple Martins. If you don't already know you may be interested in the PM Field Day in L...

Glad to hear SYs have arrived in your area Toy. I identified my first one only two days earlier but I think one was here before that. Like yours it did not have the identifying purple on his chest so I was unsure and had to wait until a second SY male arrived to report him. Lots of nest building and...

Hello and Welcome Michael! You are now among obsessed Purple Martins lovers and I know you will really enjoy the forum adventures. Best of Luck!

Congratulations Ray! I have been eagerly awaiting your news as I knew it was time for your birds to arrive. Hope you have another great martin season and look forward to your updates and photos.

Glad to hear your good news Sue :) Hopefully that cold weather will only last one or two days which should not affect your martins if they feed well today. My first PM arrived this morning in east central VA. All of my gourds were stopped up so I went out and opened two of them. Hopefully he/she wil...

Congratulations Doug! Glad to hear your good news. I was getting a little worried here after seeing so many reports of martins north of me. Its hard to figure why they seem to migrate up through western Virginia and on to your area before I see any in eastern VA. However, my first one arrived about ...

My first Purple Martin of the 2015 season returned this morning in east central VA! Around 9am we had a severe thunder storm with heavy rain and wind at least 60mph. I was really worried it would take my Trio Grandpa down. The worst of the storm lasted about 10 minutes and thankfully the Trio surviv...

Hey Ray - now thats the way to eliminate Starlings!! Three at a time. Don't think I ever heard of that before. Way to go!

So glad to hear your good news Tony! Hope you have a Fun PM season this year.

You have a beautiful setup there Donnie! Great looking houses and wide open spaces. Have a Great Martin Season :-)

Hello Hunter, Welcome to the Forum and thanks for posting your story. :) And Congratulations on your successful year of hosting Purple Martins! It's great to read a success story like yours and I can relate to it perfectly as I tried to re-establish my colony for well over 10 years. I did all the th...

Hi Ray,

It's the same here in Virginia. I was waiting and hoping the SY migration would boost my numbers but they never arrived. I only have 2 or 3 SY's this year.

ps - It was great to see you again this year at the Field Day!

Beautiful photos Chuck. Thanks for posting them.

Looking forward to seeing both of you again this year and hoping to meet many more Purple Martins fans. Safe travels.

Congratulations Delma! I know how thrilled you must be and I loved to read your report as it gives many others hope to continue their efforts. Best of Luck in growing your colony!

Congratulations on all those eggs Mike! Sounds like you have a real booming colony. I would not close any compartments as we still have several weeks for new SY arrivals. I have only seen two SY's here so I am counting on many more in the coming weeks. Nice pics, thanks for sharing and Good Martin S...