Purple Martin Forum

We did a nest check on June 6 and found a gourd with 10 eggs in it. Never in our 30+ years of having Martins have we ever seen such a thing. Did a check again on June 23, now there are 15 eggs. We looked tonight, 7/4/23, and there are still 15 eggs, no hatchings so we are assuming these are not viab...

Thanks for all the help you have sent my way. We don't have a predator problem, poles are wrapped with netting and we also have a predator guard up. Years ago we did have a snake get one Martin and we learned our lesson. We also have openings to discourage starlings and sparrows. They worked well fo...

We've had two Purple Martins that stayed one day, and six that stayed one day. That's been it. We have had an established colony for 33 years and last year we had half of what we usually have. There were 100 less eggs than usual. We have no idea what has happened that could have caused this. Nothing...

We have had a big drop in the amount of Martins that showed up this year. It has been about 25 years and we always had about 32 pair with anywhere from 155 to 172 babies, and four unused gourds. This year we have 52 babies, 11 eggs we are not sure are going to hatch, and 11 empty gourds. Has anyone ...

I do not know if this will help anyone, but a few years ago we experienced the same heat situation on two gourds that were late laying eggs. I checked on the babies and they looked very, very hot. I got some of those freezer bags (the ones you can refreeze-my wife's meds are packed with them as when...

Thanks for all the suggestions. We got a new air rifle yesterday but when Rob shot it, it sounded like a real gun and was so extremely loud, he took it back. He didn't hit anything with it anyway. When he came back from returning it, he pulls in the driveway (long driveway, goes way behind the garag...

We are having a bit of a problem with four Starlings building nests in our gourds. We have an air rifle, it's a Gamo Hunter 220, has a scope, but we are having problems shooting it and hitting anything. We've adjusted the scope, done everything we know how to do and just cannot get it to hit a targe...

Well, thought a pair had arrived but it seems like maybe not. I saw one pair yesterday for about five minutes, now nothing. Anyone else late in getting their Martins?

Last year we had Martins show up on March 7. Through the years, there has always been two pair that show up on the 17th of March. That didn't happen this year, but I did look out and saw one pair going in and out of a gourd this morning. I'm sure the others will follow shortly. Anyone else in centra...

Very sorry for the loss of your cat. It is so hard to lose a family member!

I added a picture, do any of you guys see it? I don't. I must be doing something wrong.

I have a small BB gun I got at Walmart. Pump it 10 times and it works okay. I have shot two Starlings with it. Brought them to the ground but they weren't dead, so head to shoot them again. Mine just says Grizzly on the side but will look at Walmart for the one you are talking about I do think with ...

We changed all our houses many years ago for only gourds with crescent holes. Goodbye to starlings! It has been wonderful...until...today I noticed a starling go into one of the gourds, then another went into another gourd. They have nesting material in their mouths, but they cannot get in with it a...

:grin: In the 28 years we have had a colony, a few have ALWAYS shown up on March 17. I looked for them all day long yesterday, and then around 5:00 (eastern daylight savings time) three flew in and went right into the gourds. I was getting concerned as they have never missed this date. A few flew ar...

I would say put the gourds up. We have been landlords for 28 years and we started with houses. As the houses deteriorated, we replaced them with gourds. The Martins appeared to prefer the gourds, so now we have only gourds. I think we had 44 or 45 pairs last year and 153 babies. We first put up the ...

Getting lots of Martins here in Central Virginia! This is the first year they didn't have much cold weather to deal with. We've just had five days of rain which finally let up and has become sunny here today. They are out in full force.

Everyone have a great Martin year!

Saw our first Martin on March 1. This is the earliest we have ever seen them here in central Virginia. If you didn't know the date and the Martins showed up, you would know it was March 17. Last year they came on the 10th of March. But March 1 is definitely a record for us. For 26 years March 17 was...

We did our second nest check yesterday. We have 125 eggs, 17 babies. I hope they all stay healthy and fed to be able to fly to Brazil in July. We had a little problem with a pair of sparrows that were determined they were going to live in a gourd, no matter what. We tore out one gourd three times, a...

All of our martins, all at one time, changed the way they make their nests. None of them use mud at the entrances of the gourds any longer. They now use horse hay for their nests. We find it very strange they all did it at the same time. Now we know there must be some kind of communication going on...

So sorry that happened to you. We were in our back yard with our two cats when a young hawk swooped down right in front of us and caught a martin. We never saw him coming. We started chasing after him and clapping and went to the ground, tried to get up with the martin, but was not strong enough to ...