Purple Martin Forum

There is an abandoned house next-door to him, and the attic of it is full of starlings. But like I said, never seen any going in and out of the gourd and he’s there all day most every day. He’s been retired for quite a few years. Maybe next time we go over and visit with him, see if we can lower the...

Unfortunately, he has no predator guards. I’ve tried to get him to put netting up at the base of the racks and not sure how he would put guards on the gourds for owls or hawks with no porch or no access to the inside of the gourds.

I have tried to get him to upgrade, but he’s elderly and I’m a fixed income and just recently lost his wife. So I don’t think it’s something he would be interested in right now. I put up a satellite colony at my brothers house and would assume that the birds that left his colony would filter to my b...

Unfortunately, he has gourds like I said earlier with round holes and no access hole to do a nest check. He hasn’t mentioned anything about owls or snakes. Only Hawks usually during the fledgling time when The young Leave the nest too soon and hit the ground and then the hawks are right on top Of th...

I have a friend that lives 4 to 5 miles from me. He has a small farm. He’s got a spring fed pond the states clear and clean all year. He has somewhere around 70 gourds. He’s had Martins for longer than I’ve had Martins and he always had 50 or 60 pair. The last couple years the numbers have declined ...

Yeah, I don’t see the trees being a problem. I have several tall trees, a cedar a walnut and a peach. And they’re all within 60 to 80 feet And their mature trees long as they got two or three good clear entryways shouldn’t be a problem. Just keep everything going. All those babies born around there ...

Just my two cents were but I would go and leave it up. It’s not costing anything standing there and playing the dawn song from early morning to noon. crap me cost you much either. How would say with your new site you should be looking more for the subadult Martins to be coming in and it doesn’t look...

Hey Paul yes my birds have returned they arrive on march 1st. Now there somewhere around 50 to 60 and more arriving everyday. I have not seen any Subadults yet. I hope you have the luck of the Martin and get them your first year but that’s pretty rare. Have you placed pine needles in the gourds and ...

I’m not in the Maryville area but I do love just north of Knoxville in Heiskell community. If I could help in anyway just let me know. My name and number are on the mentor page of the PMCA site.

God bless and have a great Martin season

JHCox Heiskell TN

I would go ahead and put up the house and block the entrances so that no other birds can try to take it over. Then when you begin to see martins open up a couple cavities. I agree with Conrad putting up another martin rack would be help full possibly a rack with 6 to 8 gourds hanging from it differe...

I have had a lot of luck out of the Song Bird magnet. I have two of them I eat the back of my house and one at the front. I plug them into a cheap plug in time from Walmart I have them both set to play from 5am to 9am then again from 12 to 2pm then an hour before dark. Set it up and forget it. Works...

Do you know if this roost is still active??????

We got babies. I’ll do a really in-depth nest check at the end of June. When we return from Africa I don’t think any will be fledged by then I hope not.

I did get my brother to let me put up a gourd rack at his house. He’s had 1 nest pair last year and this year. I do have several friends that are Martin landlords as well.

The easiest way to catch them now that they have eggs and are committed to the BB box. You can take a price of light weight pvc 6” in diameter Maybe 2 to 3”s long then place the open end of a bread bag over one end and tap it to the PVC. Go out at night say just before you go to bed. Place the open ...

Just get a Van Ert sparrow trap and place it in the BB box catch and dismantle the parents and feed them and the eggs to your snake.

Yeah it takes a solid hour to do a good thorough nest check. And some time they will just ride the rack down and some just never leave the gourds. When i open the gourds they just move over away from the lid where i took it off and just sit there. I'm hoping to reach 400 eggs by the time the SY's pa...

Put you some gourds on shepherd poles within that 30 to 50 foot range and the tree swallows Should take them pretty quick. Just leave two or three compartments open for your purple Martins that way they have somewhere to go if it turns cold or rains

I hate to hear that CC, but like I said on a post earlier today, it’s part of the game the circle life. There’s not much we can do about it. Gotta have SY ‘s to make ASY ‘s. I lost a large number of fledglings last year to hawks can’t be under the racks 24 seven. I can do is focus on the ones that s...

It’s all part of being a purple Martin landlord ASY’s and SY’s and the fledglings. I enjoy seeing the SY’s every year. It’s aggravating, but it’s part of the purple Martin game We all chose to play. What aggravates me worse than the SY’s Are the stupid flash lines that keep jumping from the housing ...