Purple Martin Forum

Along our water front neighborhood on Galveston Bay, Texas, all 13 homes have had 3 or more large PM houses or gourd racks for over 20 years. No one does nest checks, dusting or cleaning their houses and we continue to have hundreds of PMs every year. Most PM landlords are the same. Provide housing ...

I have four houses. Two I inherited when we bought our house. They are installed so that they have never been cleaned in over 20 years. I put up 2 more when we moved in 11 years ago. I take them down every year to clean and store them in my boat house mostly in case we have a hurricane. The two inhe...

We had a half dozen PMs flying and calling around our Galveston Bay boat house yesterday before the norther blew in last night. Very cold and windy this morning so I hope they are cozied up in the martin houses.

All my PMs have left but one. Every day a flock of visitors comes by and seem to try to get him to leave with them. He just sits there on the windvane and looks at them until the leave. Maybe he was born without the instinct to migrate and I will have him here all year? I am in Galveston County, Tex...

We don't have any notable numbers of tree swallows here in Galveston, TX area. On the other hand, most of our rural bridges have large colonies of cave swallows.

Meanwhile, no sign of PMs here on Galveston Bay. Last year they arrived on March 13th well after any chance of a hard frost.

About a dozen finally showed up here in Galveston County with the last norther. The next two days they were harassed by a hawk and have not returned.

Will the martins return after a hawk attack? The whole colony left immediately after the attack at about 730pm today and did not return before dusk as far as I can tell.

Fledging rate has never been very high. Last year a thunder storm destroyed one bird house. Only two pair from that house started over. We replaced the house this winter. We also lose some fledglings in the bay as all our houses are adjacent to water or over water.

Could be that a pair of red tail hawks have been hunting along the shore line. Frankly, the sparrows and starling are pretty scarce although the white wings and mexican doves are still plentiful and I know hawks prefer doves in this area.

We have had a small colony of 14 pairs of PMs here at our home on Galveston Bay for over 20 years. Not a single bird returned this year. No clue if from the deep freeze or if they just moved some place else this year. I'm still shooting sparrows and starlings out of habit.

We had a violent thunder storm last week that blew down trees, power lines and my neighbors PM houses. There were dead baby PMs all over his yard. Now it seems that all his homeless PMs are moving into empty cavities in my PM houses. Several pair seem to be re-mating and starting over. Since they us...

I tried something like that once atop a boat house. Failure. Also, it would be difficult to enjoy your PMs as the viewing angle is too steep. Better to put the house in the yard away from trees and buildings.

Now Now To each his own. If he wants to be a PM rancher it doesn't hurt at thing. I simply wonder what happens to colonies that have been pampered when the highly motivated humans move on?!?!?!?!?

None of us who live along this part of the bay do anything more than provide housing. I am the only one that bothers to shoot a few sparrows and starlings. To each his own.

Fledglings can do the dumbest things. They often try to land on the side of our boat houses I guess because they look like giant PM houses?

Here in Galveston we get waves of birds coming from up north that stop and visit with our PMs and fuss about the few that are fledging late. The visiting females really get alarmed about seeing babies still being fed. The males just sit and rest. Our PMs are usually all gone by mid to late July. The...

That is different. Our back yard is a dragon fly paradise. There are at least a hundred over the lawn every day. The PMs just swoop out of their houses, nab a dragon fly and zip right back to the babies. The only safe dragon flies are the 2 dozen or so that hug our house and the nearby trees. It mak...

Jeepers !!! We are PM landlords, not PM ranchers. We provide housing only. Everything else is up to nature for our colony. (I do shoot a few sparrows and starlings every year - mostly for fun)

Our neighbors PMs in Galveston County have fledged a half dozen. In our yard, we still have a clutch of three and another of two being fed by their parents. Another week to 10 days for these to fledge IMHO.

I looked it up. PMs drink by skimming the surface of rivers or lakes. Our house is on a bay and the water is mostly salty sea water. I suppose it could be brackish on top after some rain we had yesterday. Interesting.