Purple Martin Forum

I love your colony so much. It looks a tad cold there today and what beautiful photos. You have so many birds and I love how they are all sitting and protecting their own little home. I would give anything to see your site in person. Good luck this season Steve. I hope you get enough rain so that th...

That is amazing. I did not know there was such a thing. I know how addicting white sugar is. :grin: I saw in another post that they ate 90 lbs of sugar in 15 days. Whoa...that is crazy all I can think of is the ADHD high they must be on. Do these birds eat anything other than sugar? Great video than...

OMG Deb you had me going. I kept thinking Deb of all people should know better, then I scrolled a bit farther and started laughing out loud. That was great.

Hope you get many more martins. Good luck!

Wonderful. I am glad your colony is seeing an abundance of birds. I would say in a couple weeks (weather permitting) we should start seeing a few birds pour into the Dakotas too. I see Nebraska has one sighting. I'm getting anxious.

Good luck Bill. I hope you have a great season.

That is incredible the difference in progress. It will be difficult to do nest checks. That happened to me last year I had so many that nested early and then after eggs had already hatched I had more nests with eggs. I could only check on them until the first set were at fledgling stage as I did not...

Great photos! Can't stop thinking...that tail is in the way something akin to a chastity belt? Unless he is rather endowed. :???: :oops: In all seriousness great capture with the camera. I've never seen a red bellied woodpecker. We have flicker, Hairy and Downy woodpeckers here. It is fun to watch t...

Carlton, That does have to be such a relief. I know while I am building my colony and I hear my husband talk about moving it makes me sick. I don't think we will move but the thought makes me sick. Interesting how ones heart aches for this dear little birds. I'm glad things worked out for you and yo...

WOW...wonderful work. Gosh you put my concocted unit to shame. You all have such restraint. I make everything as big as I can while you are limiting the rack to 20 gourds. It is smart as I'm certain more gourds = less troubles with wind. Nice job! Thank you for sharing your step by step progress.

I truly believe housing was the key factor in getting martins and believe each area may have different requirements. I started by subscribing to this Purple Martin newspaper. Does anyone remember these old newspapers you would get once a month filled with FANTASTIC information? In 1995 I purchased a...

That is wonderful to hear. I always get a lot of hummingbirds migrate through in the spring and fall. Last year I had about 8 or them hole up in my greenhouse because I had a lot of flowers blooming and it got cold and rained for a couple weeks straight. It was fun to watch them up close. Enjoy your...

I hope you guys see spring real soon. I have the fever so bad this year that I put up all my housing last week. I know I will not get martins until April or even May but I want to make sure I get rid of some sparrows and starlings before my martins show up. I also bought a bistro set and put that to...

Steve, I love reading your martin stories. However, it was like one of those novels I read with a bad ending which keeps you guessing...I would have run out to the pasture and looked for the martin. ha ha. Thanks for sharing. Debbie, Great idea about the air horn. I am going to purchase one the next...

Mark,

Then once the martins are here we perform brain exercises...by constantly counting the martins on the houses and in the air. Heck I find myself counting in my sleep.

Good luck everyone. I hope you all have a successful martin season.

hmmm Ray...whatchoo doin to your birds over there?

I have not seen any starlings yet. But the sparrows are crazy here. I cannot seem to get them in my traps but I suspect now that the weather is getting warmer I will soon get some trying to nest in my bird housing.

Yes, that would be a beautiful sound. Do you have a lot of birds staying at your housing right now?

Tim,

That is wonderful. I keep watching the scout report and don't see any northern progress. I hope that things begin to warm up and the birds start moving north again.

Enjoy your birds.

That is wonderful. Boy they do not spend a lot of time lolligagging? I'm surprised. Mine seem to spend so much time flying around, fighting etc and then finally get down to business. I am glad I did not cut down my grasses. I bet that is very good nesting material. I had not thought of putting that ...

Aww Frank, I am so sorry you had to give up your martin houses. I think I would bawl like a baby if I had to give up my martins. But I understand, I have 20 acres with about 2 acres in gardens and last year I decided I needed to put in conifers, shrubs and trees and cut back on the perennials as the...

I am in the very early stages of getting all my martin houses ready and as soon as the temperature gets into the 40's or 50's I will go out and put all all my housing. I use this time prior to the martins coming to trap S&S. I built a breakfast tray that is about 5' off the ground and have been plac...

As soon as it gets nice I hang my gourds and use this opportunity, prior to the martins arriving, to trap S&S. I have 8 traps that I can put on my gourds and I monitor them daily and clean out these pests before the martins arrive. I am getting so excited for my birds to come back. I cannot wait unt...