Purple Martin Forum

I try very hard to control the starling and HS population at my colony. I have a wonderful repeating trap that catches them all season long. I can't shoot here in the city, so I have to depend on lowering the housing and tearing out their nests. I had lowered the house and thrown away some starling ...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm posting a link of a video I took today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCQ3s0vVh-U

Check your inbox. I sent you a message.

Just did a nest check. Ten of the 15 eggs have hatched with healthy looking babies! I unstacked them to be sure. There are 5 eggs yet. I'll check them again tomorrow. Is it safe to start distributing babies to other nests that have only four or five babies?? Does this need to be documented in any wa...

Grrrr... I can't seem to make the picture turn upright! Sorry!

Update: I think the picture is straight now!

I have lowered the house almost daily to check this nest with 15 eggs. Today I noticed the parents going in and out constantly so knew there must be babies. When I checked this evening I counted 7 - or possibly 8 - new babies! We will see what happens with the rest of the eggs.

Hi John -

Email me at [email protected] when you can come over. We would love to have you any time! We live right next to Deer Park Junior High off of 13th Street.

Yes! I have four full houses - 33 compartments in all! I would be happy for you to drop by. You can see my nest that has FIFTEEN eggs right now! Let me know if you can and I'll send you an address.

By the way - I live in Deer Park which is very close to you.

A pair of mockingbirds has claimed my back yard for as long as we have lived here. One often sits on one of the Martin houses. The martins pay no attention to them!

There are 15 eggs now instead of 12! I checked the nests about an hour ago. I counted and re-counted. If I was reading this being posted by someone else I would have suspicions that the landlord was playing some sort of trick - but I swear to God I have not messed with this nest in any way! To me so...

Sorry I'm just now posting a reply to your question about my earlier nest check Louise! I'm quite vertically challenged and can't see in all the nest compartments when I bring the big house down unless I bring the ladder out with me. What I do is stick my iPhone up in the top compartments and snap a...

I did a nest check this morning and was blown away by what I found! One of the nests has 12 eggs!!! The eggs all look normal. As soon as I raised the house the martin pair came back and the female went inside. I need to know from the experts what I should do! Do I wait until the young hatch and thro...

I live in Deer Park just East of Houston. I have the first three spending the night tonight - two ASY females and one ASY male. I had a male pay a visit earlier this week but didn't stay. These are about two weeks behind their arrival in prior years. I'm just relieved they finally started showing up...

I uploaded some pictures of my four martin houses in Deer Park, TX. The martin's favorite one was given to us by Emil Pampell several years ago when I noticed martins a few yards away fighting for their housing which was full of sparrows. The landlord had moved, and the young couple that purchased t...

That's it! Thanks Matt!

It's exciting to be so close to time for our little buddies to come back! I think my first scout arrived February 8 last year. About three homes within a few blocks of me have martin housing that has not been managed for years. The houses are bursting at the seams with old sparrow nests. I want to a...

The hawk was back this morning buzzing the housing. Emil, I saw 8 or 9 hawks above our place this morning too! There were so many I thought they had to be buzzards, but I checked with binoculars and they were definitely hawks. The one that buzzes the housing is much smaller than the ones circling! I...

I was standing outside watching the antics of two ASY males vying for the attention of one ASY female that showed up today. All three would circle around in the air flirting and warbling, then the males would dive for the martin house and try to talk her into joining him in his chosen compartment......

Hey Joe - Can you post a picture of how you make and hang the coffee cans? Sounds interesting!