Search found 71 matches
- Sun Aug 10, 2014 9:24 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Wild bird identification challenge (in Tennessee)
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1823
I'm afraid none of your guesses look enough like what I saw to put me off my original guess, the white tern: http://i62.tinypic.com/10ztkk2.jpg The white-tailed kite was close but it has more of a raptor's head, and I can't get past the impression that what I saw looked exactly a long, skinny pure w...
- Mon Aug 04, 2014 1:32 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Wild bird identification challenge (in Tennessee)
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1823
Wild bird identification challenge (in Tennessee)
This morning I saw two birds I could not identify sitting together on a powerline alongside the road as I bicycled past down a country road. When I got home I looked them up on he Interwebs, but the details I remember don't fit any of the common Tennessee birds. In fact, the most likely possibility ...
- Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:58 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Nest Fidelity Trumps Nest Robbers
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1134
Nest Fidelity Trumps Nest Robbers
I've only managed to attract one pair of PUMAs to my house, and last year was their third season as my tenants. And it looked to be their best season ever in the making, with five eggs laid. But in one afternoon, in less than four hours, an unidentified nest robber removed all five eggs, broke them ...
- Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:38 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: All my eggs, gone.
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2968
Bittersweet news. I have a neighbor who has had a PUMA house in the back yard since they moved in, but they have never done any maintenance on it. Which is a shame, really, because it's in the middle of a wide-open lot and there isn't a taller tree for a good 100 feet in any direction. AFAIK, they n...
- Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:04 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Oops, a "non-believer" asked about my PMCA NB trap
- Replies: 25
- Views: 8199
Re: Oops, a "non-believer" asked about my PMCA NB
Yes.MamaBruff wrote:...Are we as a society so far removed from nature, that we no longer observe or understand it? *sigh*
Mary
- Mon May 27, 2013 5:40 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: All my eggs, gone.
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2968
I figure it had to be a bird of some sort because I can't imagine anything that couldn't fly getting in and out in broad daylight without calling attention to itself. I'm thinking an SA male is a possibility because a nearby PUMA landlord took down his three houses (+12 gourds) when he moved out and...
- Sun May 26, 2013 7:18 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: All my eggs, gone.
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2968
All my eggs, gone.
I only have one pair of PUMAs, in their third season with me. My first egg had appeared Tuesday. There was another new one every day through Friday's nest check, when there were a total of four. She laid five last season so when I checked the nest at 1 p.m. on Saturday, I was expecting to find that ...
- Tue May 21, 2013 11:29 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Tennessee Purple Martins?
- Replies: 12
- Views: 4873
- Tue May 21, 2013 11:14 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Does mud dissuade you from replacing nest material?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1958
There is mud daubed in spots all over the front of the house. How weird. This is how it looks this morning: http://s1.bild.me/bilder/150113/5887245r_c_bunker_nest.jpg It looks as if it was built in three layers. I find it gratifying to see how the sophistication of their nest engineering improves as...
- Fri May 17, 2013 11:06 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: WHOOO-HOOOOOO
- Replies: 34
- Views: 9943
- Fri May 17, 2013 3:21 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Does mud dissuade you from replacing nest material?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1958
Does mud dissuade you from replacing nest material?
I am amused at how my birds' nest building skills have evolved. I only have one pair so it's easy to track their progress. Their SY year (summer of 2011, my first season as a bona fide PUMA landlord), they built a scrawny little pile of sticks that wasn't substantial enough to prevent the eggs, when...
- Fri May 17, 2013 2:58 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: A quick way to kill starlings
- Replies: 34
- Views: 17749
- Thu May 16, 2013 9:36 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: A quick way to kill starlings
- Replies: 34
- Views: 17749
When I was a kid, I came back from a dove hunt and dumped my game bag onto the patio floor to clean the birds. One of them flew away. It was limp and appeared lifeless when I had picked it up so it must have only been stunned or knocked out. And I never felt it fidget while still inside the game bag...
- Wed May 08, 2013 2:49 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Universal Sparrow Trap
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2424
It's slowed down but earlier this season I was catching as many as three a day. My hope is the reason I don't catch so many any more is that I've thinned them out that much. Be aware the standard hole is large enough to admit an adult PUMA. I know this for fact because last month I caught an ASY mal...
- Sun May 05, 2013 9:49 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Anything Known About Mosquito Abatement Sprays?
- Replies: 1
- Views: 1265
The story about PUMAs eating hundreds of mosquitoes a day is a myth. Martins typically fly -- and feed -- up relatively high, and skeeters only ever fly close to the ground. Plus a skeeter has too little "meat on its bones" to be a martin's food of choice. They'd rather eat something fleshier, more ...
- Fri May 03, 2013 3:19 pm
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Tennessee Purple Martins?
- Replies: 12
- Views: 4873
- Mon Apr 29, 2013 11:05 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: Pics - Dark female or subbie male?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2261
http://s1.bild.me/bilder/150113/8780735puma_tails.jpg I turned this upside-down from the original because it's easier for my brain to recognize the upside-down words than to correlate the upside-down picture to a right side up bird. I'm hardly an authority but to my eye the bird in the picture most...
- Thu Apr 25, 2013 11:23 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: James Rieman - pellet guns in Houston
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2474
I can't find anything in the city ordinances (located here ) regulating airguns, however, ... CODE OF ORDINANCES City of HOUSTON, TEXAS Sec. 6-16. - Shooting or catching wild birds. It shall be unlawful for any person to shoot or attempt to shoot or kill with any air rifle, bow and arrow, slingshot ...
- Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:59 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: UST - Universal Sparrow Trap
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2810
It's a tight squeeze but it fits in my Heath house. I operate mine a bit differenfly from Ms. Chambers. I caught an ASY male in mine earlier this season. Because I only have one pair of Martins in residence, I can't stand the thought of the trap frightening them off. So when I caught the one PUMA, I...
- Thu Apr 25, 2013 9:13 am
- Forum: Purple Martin Forum
- Topic: To shoot (sparrows) or not to shoot? That is the question...
- Replies: 22
- Views: 9420
JR4-AL, a compensator is not the same as a suppressor or silencer. In a nutshell, a silencer is any device that lessens the noise emitted when you shoot a firearm. This is an exact copy of the definition from the ATF's regulations: 18 U.S.C., § 921(A)(24) "The term “Firearm Silencer” or “Firearm Muf...