Purple Martin Forum

July 1 Martintown33, thanks for the interest and good wishes. Our martin house is normally at the very top of the Lonestar Alamo pole shown in the picture. That photo showed the house closed off, as it now appears to be too late in the season to start a colony, given that we have to be in Toronto at...

June 27 Sadly (I've had to use this word often this purple martin season) we've had no further luck. As we now have to return to Toronto for about 11 days we have decided to close our martin house to keep HOSPs and starlings out. Given that we have had no takers recently, and that it is very late in...

June 20 Very unexpectedly my wife's nephew decided not to come to our seasonal home until at least June 25 and we decided to stay, giving us at least another week to try to entice purple martins to settle in! This morning I played the Dawn Song from 6:10 AM on. A single martin landed momentarily on ...

June 17 Update Yesterday I played the Dawn Song from 6 AM on. Throughout the morning and early afternoon I had the same martin experience as described in my last posting. Single martins repeatedly landed on our martin house roof and balconies. Sometimes the martin just stayed on the balcony awhile a...

June 14 Thanks for the feedback, Rob and Toy. The pair that left early the morning of June 10 have not returned. Yesterday I played the Dawn Song into the late afternoon. At various times during the morning single martins landed on each of the balconies of the three open compartments with the round ...

June 12 Update-Sad and disappointing news. I have what, for me, is very disappointing news. "Our" purple martins have gone! On Wednesday, June 9 the martins left in the early afternoon, as they had been doing (presumably, as Toy mentioned, to feed). Unusually, they had not returned by late...

Toy, Thank you very much for this information. I was definitely puzzled. This suggests that if this is the situation that applies to this threesome my third guy may just take up a compartment and fail to mate and produce offspring. However, if I am lucky, he may come back next year and mate then. Th...

JUNE 9 PS: Shortly following the above post I looked out and, to my surprise, saw a threesome on the bottom balcony (see image 3733). I am puzzled as to what the dynamics of this purple martin relationship might be. Why would a pair be this close to a third? If the third stays will he share a single...

June 9 Update The martins did return. Because of the HOSP threat I have just left 2 compartments open. I have been glad to have done so as yesterday a HOSP landed on the martin house roof and dropped down onto a few of the balconies where the entrances were blocked off. Luckily he didn't check out t...

June 6 Update On our way back from Toronto yesterday I purchased a Stoeger S3000-C Combo air rifle with a telescopic sight using .177 alloy pellets. I decided I would devote today to getting rid of the HOSP and would postpone trying to attract martins until this accomplished. I therefore left our ma...

Wow! What a problem HOSPs can be! I am trying to start a martin colony. The first year's attempt was sabotaged by a season long battle with a single, believe it or not (as per post "Chicadee Interference") wily and tenacious HOSP. This second attempt has so far been torpedoed by -first a H...

Hi Jones, Sadly, the final outcome today was what one would have predicted. The HOSP ended up outlasting the martin and being the sole occupant of the one compartment I had left open. Because we have to return to Toronto for the next two days and won't be here to provide oversight, I lowered our mar...

June 2 Update At 6:30 AM started playing Dawn Song with the 3 compartments with the round holes open. Over next couple of hours Purple Martins repeatedly visiting, at different times entering each of the 3 open compartments, staying for a while and then flying off before later returning (?same guys ...

I'm very sorry to hear that.

I, too, am wondering how long they have been gone.

Are there any colonies near you? If so, it would be interesting to know if they have had any unusual experience.

Gotham

Thank you, Jeff and Jones, for your feedback. Later the day of my last posting (Friday, May 28) the SY appeared to have gone. The following day was overcast and rainy and he did not return, making me wonder if, being alone, he had gone to join the colony on the neighboring property. That evening ANO...

FINALLY! We can hardly believe it! A Purple Martin has actually landed on, and ENTERED, our Purple Martin house! This morning a male SY landed on the balcony of one of the 3 compartments of our Lonestar Alamo Purple Martin house that have round entrance holes (the other 11 compartments have the SREH...

Hi Tom, Thanks for the words of encouragement and for your suggestions. As for the possibility the martins in this area may have never before seen SREH's, I have now reopened the 3 compartments with the round holes (the other 11 compartments having the SREH's). If the starlings return I will try to ...

May 24 Update- Despite having the two decoys in place the HOSP returned about two weeks ago (see attached photo"sonofagun")-so much for the naive hope that the use of martin decoys would be a strategy that would deter the HOSP from coming back! I therefore decided to keep our martin house ...

Hi Toy, Thank you for the suggestion. When I had the problem 2 years ago, with the martin couple unable to enter our house through the SREH's, you advised me to apply the grit tape and I did (see photo near bottom of page 2 of the "Chicadee Interference" posts at the time). I put the tape ...

For decades annual martin colony in unsupervised martin house at our seasonal home in Wellington Ontario, Canada, on north east shore of Lake Ontario. About 6 years ago tradition interrupted when house taken over by starlings. 3 years ago, late in season, decided to become active martin landlords an...