Purple Martin Forum

Welcome to the forum How far are you from Nemaha county? I go there to deer hunt in the fall. I'm not an experienced landlord but my only thought on this is that the S&S are the easy ones to deal with because you can trap and shoot them. BB & TS however you can't and if they decide to take up reside...

No problem, I'm gald you liked it. Mary Dawnsong shared the link last year after a banded SY male showed up at my site for a day. I was trying to find out if anyone locally had PM's banded the previous year. It didn't seem that the MIDNR had banded Martins any time recently so that bird was likely a...

Seller here is a link to some info about that... page 6 talks about dispersal and natal site fidelity. Pretty interesting read.

http://purplemartin.org/update/BandingPM11(3).pdf

On the smaller gourds if you can add a tunnel of some kind it will help protect Martins from reach in attacks by owls and racoons. This type is made from schedule 30 PVC with a glue on cap, the porch is part of the pipe heated up and bent flat. They're pretty easy to make and add valuable depth to t...

Peggy Heres a link to a Starling resistant Northern Flicker box. http://www.shawcreekbirdsupply.com/starling_resistant_flicker_house.htm Starlings will sit and watch a woodpecker until they're done making their nest cavity and then take it over for themselves. It might be something to try if you're ...

Hey MB12RING, What kind of welding machine do you have? I am thinking about buying a Miller Syncrowave 200. I considered getting a spool gun for my MIG welder, but would much rather TIG aluminum with AC high freq. BILLY Billy It was done with a MIG wire feed. TIG does a nicer job but takes longer a...

flyin-lowe

That hose clamp idea is cool, motion is key for decoy realism.

Maybe we could talk mojo outdoors into making a spinning wing martin decoy

Whether they work to attract Martins or not is anyones guess. What I do know is that hawks can't tell they're not real. One morning I looked out to see one of the decoys upside down, and they were secured pretty tight to the perch rods, so something pretty big took a swipe at it. I also noticed alot...

Some of the things that have been keeping me busy this winter. Let me know what you think. If I don't get anymore pairs this year it won't be for lack of available cavities. I went from 20 last year to about 68 this year. Some of the housing will be put up at my shop which is about 200 yds. down the...

Nice looking job Linda... looks like factory work there:)

Jack Gulvin wrote:I have a dozen supergourds and starlings have been a problem. I'd like to change to SREH with little or no cutting of the gourds. Any ideas on how to do this?

PM sent

I'd try offering a couple cavities with round holes... at least unil you get established. I had a Goliad w crescent holes and the martins pretty much ignored it and went to the housing w the round holes. I changed some of the holes in the Goliad to round and they started going in the compartments. A...

Do you typically cut access/entrance holes before or after soaking in copper sulfate?

Thanks
Matt

There was a pic of a "ghost house" on here a while back that had protected porches, it looked alot like what you are describing... it looked like it would definately offer added protection for PM's hanging out on their porhes

I'm still seeing martins hear in Michigan too. Must have been a late batch of babies but every morning this past week there has been a family of Martins soaring around at the jobsite I've been working at in Whitehall. The ones that were at my colony this year have been gone for weeks already, its fu...

I watched a female martin bring a locust back to the nestlings and try very hard to convince them to eat it but they couldn't do it. So rather than let it go to waste she gulped it down herself. It was quite a process, like watching a snake swallowing something and your thinking "no way, is it reall...

I would suggest using them especially if you are using the Dawnsong. The decoys add that much more confidence to already skeptical sy birds that are looking to nest for the first time. I have 4 and had them painted by a taxadermist because they aren't all that realistic looking when you buy them, bu...

Thanks for the info, I changed the nest again Saturday and put an ample amount of 7 on the floor and pine straw that I put in. There were still a couple fleas in the cavity left from the nest change on Thursday but that was it, no blowfly larva or smaller bugs (they might have been flea larva that I...

I just changed the nesting material for my only pair of martins, the babies are 10 days old today. That was one of the grosser things I've done lately. The nest was literally crawling with insects. From large blowfly larvae to feather lice, but what suprised me the most were all the fleas inside the...

Ann If you think that lowering the house would help, I see no problem in doing so. Since you have been having problems with neighbors harassing your birds for several years now, maybe you should consider not hosting martins until the neighborhood is a safe place for them. On another note........bla...