Purple Martin Forum

Hi Toy;

Yes, I am offering both egg shells and crushed oyster shells. They are liberal with the word "crushed", as they are pretty big pellets. I am trying to crush them into smaller pieces before feeding, but they are very hard.

Hope things are going well at your site.

Hanover Bill.

Is there any correlation between egg size and age of the female? I notice, what I would call, a lot of smaller than usual eggs this year. I know I have more SY Martins nesting than usual, due to early spring losses of my older birds. Would this explain the smaller eggs?

Thanks;
Hanover Bill.

I can't speak to Delaware, but here in Southwestern Pa. they are very late laying. We had a terrible spell of weather early in May and a lot of Martins perished. The remainder seem to be way behind in nest building, and egg laying.

Good Luck for the remainder of the season.

Hanover Bill.

Mike; Great job saving that ASY bird. That takes real dedication. This certainly has been a difficult spring. Like you this is my first experience dealing with "killing" spring weather at my site. Surprisingly sites to the north seem to have weathered it better than down around my area. The only goo...

Hi Toy; I know you have had a rough go of it the last few years with the weather. This is my first real experience with "killing" spring weather. Previous years losses have been one or two, but I fear this year I have taken a more substantial hit. Hopefully the SY birds will take up the slack, I see...

Just making my own amateur observation based on what I see at my site it appears that the ASY males took the biggest hit from the cold, wet, windy early spring in my area. I lost 3 ASY males that I know of but I fear the total is probably quite a bit higher than that. I base this on the fact that as...

I don't eat a lot of eggs, so thus I am short on egg shells to place on the bed & breakfast for the Martins. I picked up some crushed oyster shells the other day, but they use the word "crushed" pretty liberally. They are quite large pieces. I'm not sure if the Martins will be able to ingest them or...

I have lost five Martins due to the recent cold snap, despite supplemental feeding. 3 ASY males, 1 ASY female, and 1 SY female. Yesterday and the day before I had several laying on the ground but able to fly when approached. The dead birds were all nothing but bones, no flesh on them at all. It seem...

How concerned should I be over the occasional visit of a huge Red Tail Hawk? He perches on top of my T-14 pole searching for prey on the ground in the big field behind my housing. He shows little or no interest in my Martins, and they show little or no interest in him. Nothing like the response from...

I usually see 50 degrees as the make or break temp for flying insects, and for the Martins' ability to find them and feed. I am wondering how much that temp varies if there is a large body of water nearby where they can feed. It is my understanding that there would be flying insects available at low...

I agree that mid morning was always the time I would see visitors when I was trying to establish a colony. To narrow it down a little I would say 10AM till Noon. I also agree that you will almost always hear them before you see them.

Hanover Bill.

After 7 yrs. of trying I finally have had some success with supplemental feeding my Martins. What finally did the trick for me are "cicadas", those nasty insects that drove us crazy clinging to everything last summer. I gathered and froze several coffee cans full of them last summer. A messy job whi...

Hi Toy;

Great news. I have 5 here right now. Weather is supposed to improve tomorrow, hopefully Phil was right about an early spring.
Best of luck to you this season.

Hanover Bill.

I would say yes. Especially when trying to attract your first nesters. In my own case I started with a plastic house, added gourds, Troyer horizontal and verticle, and finally found success when I also put up a T-14. The T-14 seemed to put me over the finish line. Of course all of this took 5 years ...

Steve; My colony kind of evolved a little differently. I started off with a plastic house, then a house and some gourds. I only got nesters when I added a T-14 to the mix. It seemed to be the deal maker in attracting my first nesting pairs. However, after those first nesters the gourds won out in a ...

No lack of things to worry about when you are a Purple Martin Landlord. Add another one to the list with this news. Martins are very adaptable as are all of God's creatures, so hopefully they will navigate this issue as they have many others over the years.

Hanover Bill.

Well said Toy. I'm already missing them.

Bill.

It seems like every year I am privileged to get a "farewell tour" from my Martins. Even though most had fledged weeks ago and there has been very little activity around my housing, yesterday I was treated to what I call the "farewell tour". At least 50 Martins circling the housing, chirping away, al...

Anyone out there have any experience with 18 gourds hung on a 2" square aluminum pole? Right now I have two 2" aluminum poles with 12 gourds a piece on them. No issues at all with the wind with this set up. I am thinking about possible expansion next year to 18 gourds on one or both of them . They s...

Hi Dave; Nature indeed can fully test our resilience. I know mine has been tested quite a few times as a Purple Martin Landlord. Just last night I heard a GHO hooting away in my back lot. Fortunately all of my Martins have fledged, but it sure gives me something to worry about for next season. I don...