Purple Martin Forum

That was awesome Phil!
Loved seeing the coverage about both the Monarchs and the Martins.
Indeed, great Martin (and Monarch) PR!

RC!!!!
Always great to hear from you sir!
Very nice groupings by the way with that Hammerli.

I remember seeing sometime back some type of motion sensor equipped water sprinklers that one could use to keep cats away from things.
If you do an internet search for something like "motion activated sprinkler", I think some come up.

That is awesome news Ryan!!!!
I still frequently think about you and your Martin housing, and your journey to get a colony started.
I think this may be the first photo I've seen of your new sight, and it looks amazing
Any news of any sightings at other locations you've setup housing at?

Totally agree Tom.
Nice work on the Spare-O-Door clone. I would probably end up mangling the trap mechanism and two or three Trio doors in the process LOL.
That's a great idea from Kathy F. She is awesome!

Great report and great work Dave!

Just thinking out loud here, but the question Larry has about trapping options for Birds Choice/Coates/Watersedge houses, may also become a question for some that are using Trio/Nature House houses since the manufacturer appears to have ceased making what may have been one of the best house sparrow ...

Add me to the Troyer list.
Purchased and setup a Troyer 12-gourd rack along with Troyer vertical gourds last year.
The Conley II entrance combined with wing-entrapment protection is the big selling point for me.

Great photo Tom!
Those big natural gourds look amazing!
Between your home colony, and your satellite colonies, you are managing a lot of housing, and taking care of a lot of Martins.
Truly great work!

One thing that has helped me before when dealing with a wary house sparrow, is playing house sparrow calls on my phone with the volume up all the way. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a neat little app, that amongst other things has various recordings of bird species. It's pretty effective at luri...

They did indeed Tom.
One of the unsung heroes that was behind many of Trio/Nature House innovations that made the housing so management friendly, Martin friendly, and designed to last for decades, was Trio Manufacturing engineer Arthur Vail. Lots of history.

There may be some that were already aware of this, but Erva (the company that owns Nature House amongst other things) has discontinued production of the highly revered Castle and Mini-Castle houses. When Erva bought Nature House back in 2006 and moved manufacturing from Griggsville to Chicago, I (an...

Hi John, Great work on getting the number and calling them. I know if there's anyone that can inform and educate someone in a non-off-putting manner, it is you. Just thinking out loud - I wonder if going this route with those Supergourds might be the path of least resistance: https://www.purplemarti...

Greetings all, I've been recently watching a live video stream of a Martin colony on YouTube, located at the Train Station Musuem in La Plata, MD. Here is a link to the stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkgfjCxr8C0 It's a great looking setup, that someone obviously put a lot of time and effort...

Just to add to how destructive house sparrows are, even when it appears they're coexisting with the Martins, below is some empirical evidence gathered by San Antonio Martin advocate Mike Scully. Mike used to monitor numerous Martin houses that were erected in public areas, and had been hosting Marti...

I'm thinking it's a starling that's chasing the house sparrow.
The wing shape of the larger bird looks like a starling to me.

Good post Tom!
There have been numerous times over the years where I've been in position for a shot, for whatever reason the house sparrow flew off, and I would use my phone to start playing house sparrow vocalizations to effectively lure it back into "weapons envelope".

Missouri landlord Kathy Freeze compiled some amazing information including videos about a GHO that was attacking her colony. Here's her blog page that also contains the YouTube video showing her owl protection, and how it's setup: https://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2021/02/building-owl-excluder-for-pu...

Hi Sonja, I recalled seeing a gentleman on YouTube demonstrating some really good modifications (including cooling) he performed on his Heath AH-12 Martin house. I was able to locate those videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQtyI5LR30I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7vTq5EuhGY https://www.you...

BioJoe wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 08, 2022 6:22 pm

all of the talks are recorded, we'll be putting them on youtube in a few weeks!

Woohoo!!!!
Thanks Joe!