Purple Martin Forum

Well, it's been a long time ago since I started training the birds to feed on mealworms. Seems most people flip worms or crickets with a plastic spoon. I did it a little different. I used a straw as a miniature blow gun. Latter went to a piece of aluminum arrow 8 or 9 inches long. You need to start ...

jr 2 - sorry for the long reply time..... The feeder is homemade and yes it is low, about five foot off the ground. Here's a link to a close-up picture if you want to look: http://myplace.frontier.com/~flhargis1/Backyard/Feeder.jpg As I stated earlier the female disapeared about the 3rd or 4th day. ...

First , thanks to you all for your good wishes. There is a lot more to the story. My wife and I are both getting on in years and she has a lot of knee problems and I have a lot of back problems (three operations). Any way, last year we decided to give up our martins after more than twenty years. Sur...

These are not real good but you can see the birds using the feeder.

You are not going to believe this!! We had two (a pair) show up this afternoon! This is the earliest we have ever had martins. And also the first time we've ever had a pair show up together. Once, when the weather had been warm for several days we had one show up on March 1st. The weather has been c...

Found two fledgings with both eyes like this. Both were on the ground blind. Anyone have any idea what this is?

http://myplace.frontier.com/~flhargis1/ ... P_0039.jpg
http://myplace.frontier.com/~flhargis1/ ... P_0041.jpg

Doug, I believe you are right, without the supplemental feeding they probably won’t get enough to stay alive. However the second female still hasn’t taken a single worm and she is still going. That said both her and the second male are not near as active as the first pair. Hope she will catch on soo...

I’ve came to the conclusion that our martins are finding something to eat in the 30+ degree weather we are having. Our first martin, a male, this year came 5 days later than last year, on the 9th of March. A female showed up a couple of days later. The male took the first mealworm I tossed to him an...

We’ve had several really nice days of late. Temps in the upper 60’s and even up into the 70’s but no martins. There have been scout reports to the east, west and south of us but not here. Our first martin last year showed up on March 4th, second earliest in 20 years. Now this afternoon the temp was ...

We live in Flora, Illinois, a small town of approx. 5000. This will be our 21st year hosting martins. Last year we had 50 nesting pair. As you can see by the photo our site is a long way from what the experts say you must have. This photo was taken six years ago, so the trees are even closer now. Al...

I think maybe there's a fourth Martin house in the photo????

We have a trio castle that Mourning Doves have nested on. We take the doors and sub floors off the house each fall and replace them next spring. One year the doves started building on the porch and in one cavity before we replaced the doors. The female would usual set on the eggs as I lowered the ho...

Yes it's in the archives under Starling Resistant Entrance Holes (SREH's)
about 2/3 the way down.

And you're quite welcome.

Frank

Maybe this is it? http://www.purplemartin.org/downloads/PDemolition.pdf

Bob, We live in Flora, IL. Our first arrivals were a week later than last year. March 16th this year. We have too many to count and nest building has just started so can't count that way. Just guessing that we have maybe 50 birds at present. Ended up with 52 nesting pair last year. Hope to get close...

Take a look at these. There’s two gourds on hooks. You can hardly see the second one as it’s behind the first, but we have had these up for at least four years and the martins have nested in them every year. I think these are 6’ tall. I can look in the entrance hole without standing on anything. As ...

Linda, I believe you are right in your thoughts that everyone needs some “teachers” in their colony. I raise my own mealworms and feed some to the martins all summer long. I believe this gives the later arrivals a better chance to learn from the “teachers.” I usually have several that take mealworms...

parkerdes I too raise mealworms. I've fed them to the martins for some time now. Wasn't very easy to get them started though. I tried for quite a while before having any luck. I finialy got them started by flipping some of the beetles. Didn't take the martins long to accept them. After that they sta...

If you remember I posted about a month ago about an ASY male with a broken leg. At the time of my post his mate was nest building in a Super gourd on a shepherds hook. Well as of yesterday BL is a proud papa! His mate laid five eggs and they have all hatched. The male still favors his left leg but h...

Update on BL. Have noticed today that he’s starting to put more weight on the bad leg, especially when he first lands. Can see him trying to grip with the left foot when he lands on a wire. He’s still not putting full weight on the leg and still uses his left wing as a crutch but he’s definitely get...