Purple Martin Forum

For the past several years, I have had purple martins fill a 12-unit purple martin house I have on the top of a fifteen-foot pole in my back yard in Houston. And I always battled English sparrows. But once in the summer of 2015 and once again in the summer of 2016, I happened to look up and see a h...

That’s great!

Hi everyone. Hope everyone’s Purple Martin season is off to a great start. My first birds were about 20 days earlier this year than the past couple years. Previous years they have came on around March 20-22. This year they started arriving on the March 2nd. We had nice warm weather and a nice south ...

Send me a PM with your address and I'll send you seeds that make really nice shaped gourds. Caution... I grew nothing but gourds in my melon patch and the next year (last), I had a ton of volunteer gourd plants come up after tilling to where my friend didn't want to bother planting corn. Now I have...

Wow! That colony is impressive!

Prayers sent for Mr Jerrel.

Just curious what you guys are going through with the starlings and sparrows this season? I've had one pair of starlings that I thought were gonna be a problem but I've not seen them in several days now. Guess there's been enough activity around my place to keep them spooked off so far. I've yet to ...

Your house and gourds look great! Last year I had 12-15 martins for the first time at my new place. The year before I had housing up but only had a few visitors. If I remember correctly it was around March 20th, both years, when I started noticing any around my place. I think last year it was well i...

Had a pair in and out of my gourds this morning,checking things out. First birds I've seen for the year!!

Well ladies and gentlemen, I have good news and bad news to report. The good news is I'm gonna have plenty of time to watch for purple martins the next few weeks. The bad news is I fell from about 10 feet from a ladder while working in my shop around 6 pm last night. My left wrist is broken in three...

Hello JMcM, I am a little south of you outside Amory, about 1/2 way between Amory and Nettleton in the Bigbee-Cason community. I wondered being it has been so warm so early for such an extended time wether they may show up early this year. I read that being I am just now starting out that I should ...

Hi Jeff, wondering how your season has gone, did you have some nesting pairs? I ended up having about 12-14 or so stay with us last year. Two pair nested and we had about 4 young ones to hatch. Just wanted to add a bit to this, Archer. When I said that I had 4 fledglings, there could have possibly ...

What time in morning would you shut your dawn song off? Thanks The song box that I have is set to come on at daybreak with a light sensor. It plays for 4 hours then shuts itself off until next daybreak. If I was around and noticed any Martins around I would unplug it. After I started seeing Martins...

Hi Jeff, wondering how your season has gone, did you have some nesting pairs? Hi Archer, hope all is well. Guess I missed this post last year so here's an update. I ended up having about 12-14 or so stay with us last year. Two pair nested and we had about 4 young ones to hatch. A friend south of me...

Hi Old Newbie. What area are you in? I live in the Sherman area. I'm not an expert on Purple Martins by any means but I did have a colony for the first time in a new location, this past year. I just wanted to add the dates that I've seen Martins at my location the last couple of years. This has been...

Hi Jeff, wondering how your season has gone, did you have some nesting pairs? Hi Archer, hope all is well. Guess I missed this post last year so here's an update. I ended up having about 12-14 or so stay with us last year. Two pair nested and we had about 4 young ones to hatch. A friend south of me...

No Mam, I haven't played any cd's. I do have a Songbird Magnet box that I played the dawnsong with early in the mornings for a while. I haven't used it in several weeks after I started seeing plenty of martins stopping by and checking things out. I do believe those things help attract the martins in...

Good morning everyone. Just wanted to drop in and give an update on my site. After seeing lots and lots of Martin activity this year since March 22nd I finally have a few that are gonna stay with us hopefully. I've seen as many as 10 the last couple of days but I've had 7 that have been staying. I'v...

Just wanted to post an update. We've had tons of activity so far. Had a pair yesterday going in and out of the house and gourds together. Noticed this a few times during the day. At one point yesterday i had 7 hanging around for a few mins. We've had 1 male staying with us overnight the last couple ...

Thavks for the pointers and tips John.

My wife called a little while ago and said we have 2 checking out the housing and my daughter just text saying we have 4 now.

Excited!

Good to hear from you. You have such an open, beautiful site. I think those gourds with the tunnel SREH entrances will be the first occupied this year. Hoping for you. Got the SREH gords plugged right now. Bluebirds sure love them! I just got in for the day and I'm almost positive I saw my first Pu...