Purple Martin Forum

Can’t do it unfortunately. Away from home at the moment. Saw him hanging outside for a bit Monday, then I had to go to work for a few days. I’m not expecting much good news. My buddy down the road has lost a few already. As of yesterday, he’s got about a dozen still alive. They are in two groups hud...

Yeah I was very relieved. He must have fed today somewhere (it was about 35 by later afternoon and very sunny. My buddy down the road had a dead PM on the ground. He has about 8 or 9 now. This afternoon they were all on his roof soaking up the reflected from the shingles. He sent me a pick.. it was ...

I put a link to a short video of the brave guy in original post

South Louisiana.. Broussard La. we were below freezing since yesterday evening.. with freezing rain and sleet- maybe a bit of snow.. this morning in in the teens w/ blue skies. I lowered gourds around 2 pm ( 34f and Sunny) to check for bodies.. no dead martins. Around 4pm my male martin was perched ...

I’m pretty sure they’ll survive below freezing temps for short periods. These birds have survived hundreds of years of this kinda thing.. the string make it through,, the weak and frail get sifted out. Nature seems cruel. Long periods of below freezing with rain.. and or snow is probably the thing t...

Roy.. that was probably me (I’m David). His name was Bo. Can’t remember his last name. But he was the guy that managed the houses and I had heard about it and helped him out. Lotta work. I seriously doubt if those houses are out there anymore. If you ever drive along the lake see if they're still ou...

Checked weather this morning... keeps getting modified on the long range forecasts. Sat Sun will be pretty cold in the A.m. even lafayette area will get the chills. By wed.. the weekend forecast should be pretty firm

PMDavid wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 07, 2021 5:08 pm

Sorry sonnier, I just noticed how I spelled it last time I wouldn’t want that either. I really knew it was sonnier from the spelling of Sonyay .......only a native louisianaian would. All out friends up north would have that all messed up!

Hahahah.. no worries at all

Fingers crossed. Now that I’m retired, I don't pay much attention to the weather. For a while I’d download my own data, analyze everything then figure out the weather myself.. but that got kind of old, especially when I’m not getting paid to do it anymore lol You guys up in N La will likely get some...

Call me David


My last name is Sonnier (sonyay)


Thanks very much... hoping so too.

I had the gourd rack down earlier this morning checking a few things out and lubricating the pulleys ... two more began circling and yelling at me for waiting til the last minute to do all this stuff.

It appears the really cold weather won’t happen in the Lafayette area. I live in Broussard and the forecasted 20 degree weather and snow for Saturday has been replaced with typical mid 30s temps for lows and low 50s for highs I’m a retired weather forecaster and was quite surprised to see those type...

Is someone still maintaining the PM houses that were located on the lake? When I lived in Slidell I had helped the Doctor who was spearheading the project. He had to move away and so did I later on, so I thought the houses may be doomed.

3 martins arrived last weekend which is the earliest I’ve ever had returning martins arrive. Usually it’s been March. 2 males and a female. Didn’t see much of them this weekend.. very cold and rainy. This morning i heard some PM chatter and there’s one male buzzing the gourd rack. Peeking inside the...

I'm really happy to hear he did ok. You did a superb job. That's such a good pic too. That little guy had terrible odds against him but you certainly fudged the odds back towards him. Really puts a smile on my face. He's got a lot more dangers left but he sure got off to a healthy start. Great going...

How's the lone chick?

Yep, i put tunnels on every BO type gourd.. they are great for hawks and an easy modification

I have 2 bo11s, 6 Big Bos, and 8 Bo9s. The Bo11s and Big BOs are always selected first.

I wish the BO11 didn't weigh so much. They arenreally nice. I'm considering buying the newer BO9 Plus, martins seem to like that darkness the inner layer provides

Yeah, he looks very healthy and ready to take on the world. Good job!

David

Good to hear. Poor lil fella has many obstacles in his path over the next few months. It's amazing how in just a few more weeks he'll be in South America (if all goes well). Amazing stuff in nature.

Second thought.. after googling Buffalo Gnat.. don't think that was it at all. Pretty sure it was mites. I did see adults feeding on tiny "no see-ums" while perching and on the porches, but these were very small insects. Not the size of the flies. And I did see a gourd crawling with very tiny bugs.....