Purple Martin Forum

If you have any left, please let me know. My son and his fiance' just bought a house nearby and we are putting up a gourd rack there on his property. He doesn't have any gourds yet and I told him I would try to make him a few out of the ones I grew last year to get him started and he can save enough...

Ravens5281--I have a couple of those heaters that I use to keep the water buckets for my cows from freezing. They get extremely hot when they are not underwater and can melt the buckets when they run out of water. I would be very wary of using them in one of my houses. I like your thinking though

The video below looks like a pretty interesting idea also. You can buy 3" or 4" tape by the foot and cut to a desired length and hook them up in series. It is controlled by a thermostat. I received the reptile heat tape I mentioned above and plugged it in to see how hot it gets. It got war...

Toy in PA---I had planned to just use an angle drill and drill a hole in the floor above to fish the wire to the next floor rather than going outside the box at any point. According to the pictures I have seen, the wire only appears to be about 1/8" to 1/4" thick, which would not cause any...

I bought this heat tape on Ebay for around $20 today (Amazon wants a lot more). It is made for reptile tanks and it says it is water resistant. It is only 50 watts, so it shouldn't use that much electricity. My plan is to make a repeating S pattern on the floor of the T-14 and put the nest box tray ...

Yes, we supply scrambled eggs and dried mealworms all season long. I also tried flinging crickets last year during the cold snap, but I didn't have much luck with that. It was just so miserable with the continuous days of rain/mist and near freezing temps that they didn't seem to have the energy to ...

I am already stressing out remembering the cold snap that took the lives of a lot of my early arrivals last year here in the Northeast. I was thinking of snaking a long piece of heat tape used for keeping plumbing pipes from freezing through the floors and ceilings of one side of my T-14 to supply a...

I'm already a mentor for my area. I was just trying to be a little more proactive.

I know we have the martin arrival maps that give you an idea of martin landlords in your area, but is there a map or list that exists that shows where people trying to get martins and those who don't report arrivals? There could be people nearby that you don't even know about that you could help, fo...

Mitch--do you have any natural gourds in your setup? I have found that SY birds will almost always go to them first if they are available. I gave a couple to my brother-in-law, who had been trying for several years without them, and he got his first two pairs this year and they both built in the nat...

Connie--I think the martins would like the pole a bit higher than it sounds like you are describing, especially if you are trying to get them for the first time. It has also been my experience that you have a much better chance to attract them if you have some gourds available. The molded plastic go...

I will probably echo some of the other suggestions, but I would close the holes in the back, close off all holes to the gable boxes, drill holes in the middle walls, and then put a hinged front over the six holes as someone posted from Chuck Abare's page. I would then put up a heavy duty pole that h...

My wife bought me 2 of them for Christmas and they are the ones the PMCA sells in the Marketplace. I think they are $85 each. They come with 100' of cable attached and you can buy extensions. I ran the wire underground by using a flat spade to make a 3" V in the ground to the pole. I pushed the...

I put nestbox cameras in two compartments in my T-14 yesterday and have opened up a whole new world! I have seen fights, preening, bugs on the martins at night, and have heard the females be a lot more vocal than I ever thought. I noticed that the male martin (all birds are ASY this time of year her...

John--we have tons of HOSP around here and I think there is a lot at the zoo because of the animal feed and people dropping food. Shooting is out of the question there obviously. Thanks for the great advice so far from everyone.

Yea, I was thinking I would check their hours of operation and maybe come when it is not open to the public. Thank you for the good advice.

I have been a landlord for about 13 years and have a colony in MD approaching 80 pairs. I have recently retired and was interested in starting a new colony at a small local zoo that is close to my house. I think it would be a good place to expose the hobby to the greatest amount of people. However, ...

[Chuck exactly what is battle mode against starlings and HOSP in your area? , JIM.[/quote] Jim, S & S repeating trap, nestbox/gourd traps, and my personal favorite--a Chinese knock off rifle barrelled one pump pellet gun with a 22 cal scope that I got at a flea market for $50. I think I might ju...

The weather here in Northeast MD has been extremely crappy this winter with record snowfalls. The ground has been white for what seems like an eternity. I was trudging through the snow the other day to get to the barn when I heard a Starling doing his fluttering wing mating call from the perch of my...

I live in MD about 6 miles from both PA and DE and I have about 40 martins so far. I found a dead ASY male and female after the cold/windy spell They are coming out of the woodwork now that the weather has finally turned.