Purple Martin Forum

About 2 hours due north of you in VA. There have been some pockets where they've been able to feed a little during daylight hours here, hoping you've had some too. Wednesday looks mostly dry in my area during the daytime again so all should be fine here. Lost many birds in 23' after 5 day rain event...

Sorry for your loss. I had a massive loss a few years ago when I had to travel to the midwest and my area received 5 consecutive days of overcast and rain. Did you guys have inclement weather by chance? I had to remove over 100 dead babies and some parents many at similar ages you mentioned...I know...

Nice work Rob and excellent you tube video. Liberty is an amazing school and congrats on your daughter going there! I wasn't smart enough back then...They called it Liberty Baptist during my days and wasn't near the size of today.

A crane popped into my head reflecting on the day and thinking about my pond back home with the emergence of filimintanious algea so I decided to chase it down the rabbit hole somewhere 30,000 feet up flying over KY or IN last night and this emerged lol... Phil...I appreciate the awakening...first w...

Jones, Great, well written post as always. You should be a poet sir! Rob, Coming this weekend, gonna put a hurting on some shrimp and spend a bunch of money at the booths. (Well my wife will) lol Keep checking those Zillow listings.. 😀 Phil My English is terrible but my desire is great to effective...

I think the enjoyment is increased by the effort. Plus, us newbies get to make new acquaintances as we learn proper techniques. Jones you sound like a Ferrum grad - lol but then again maybe other schools have that motto. Phil - hope your enjoying shrimp fest. Enjoy a shrimp taco for the rest of us ...

Jones, I wouldn’t doubt those crows ran him off or at least keeping him at bay. The crows here are all over the hawks. Just a couple hours ago martins sounded the alarm and took off fast, two crows were going crazy in a tall live oak. Sure enough, here comes a hawk across the field being chased by ...

right on! Glad they did the alarm and scatter drill and zero casualties. Happy for you and sounds as if your colony has exploded with growth this year. Good deal! Interesting note here...Witnessed a Coopers 3 attempts over a week but haven't seen him in over 2.5 weeks now...I wonder if the Crows (la...

Agreed with others on time of season...Pairing up, figured out who has what mate and gourd, and collecting leaves, oyster shell, and nesting materials here...SY's arrives typically this week or next and all hell getting ready to break loose.

After too many years, I finally adjusted my setup and location. Then got super busy trapping and shooting HOSPs (42 in final count), while also chasing off Tree Swallows to alternate housing/location. Well, finally small success. 3 pairs and several single male SYs. My dad enjoyed coming up and wat...

Nice photo's...cool string...didn't go as I thought as I read along...Very nice Phil. Good Karma to you both.

I lost my "Buddy" last year. "Barney" was the alpha male of my colony. He and his mate, Wilma, started the colony 8 years ago, and were always the first to arrive. Last year, Barney and Wilma arrived and took up residence in their normal unit - the middle unit facing northeast i...

Indiana and where I am at in VA are very similar arrival times. The SY's haven't even shown up yet in any considerable numbers as its mostly between last week of April and first 2-3 weeks of May. I would definitely leave everything up and continue to hope. You may also get a ASY bird. I had given up...

I had one of those in my earlier Martin landlord days. I too closed off the top compartments. It seems the wasps really liked the holes for access to build their nests. I'm sure the Martins didn't care much for the wasps moving in with them. I took some window screen material and epoxied it in plac...

I have been looking for a sign of a "Buddy offspring" because I sure will miss him coming in so early. So I am hoping. If you would meet Buddy you would know him. He is truly a one of a kind bird. Heck I can even tell his voice from the others at my site. When the same bird, comes home to...

So maybe a little better than expected? Yesterday there were definitely a couple breaks- but I wasn't home to see if they ventured out. Watching the birds when I got home yesterday afternoon (during a rain break) I noticed a couple birds do the beak scrape and saw one defecate... so I took those as...

I have 6. I used a carpenters knife to cut away the 2 nodes that stuck up from the bottom and shave a little from the top. Only 1 of mine was an issue...basically turned it into a crescent entrance. Plenty of choices out there on gourds, I use the Boaxis from SK as well as Troyer Gourds. I had many ...

Darn Brent, that's nightmare scenario stuff but glad you're colony is surviving and you're investigating mitigating it. You said it all Rob "Damn Hawks"...had me spitting out my coffee when I read it this early am... Thanks CC your positive attitude, wisdom, and support are like security b...

Strange times up here early in VA. 15 males so far and only 4 females.... Com'on Ladies let's Go!

Like Brent and Rob in LA, and many others have discussed, the smaller of the hawk family has decided to investigate the area and hunt the swallows. I suppose it's unavoidable as when a food source begins growing in numbers, a worthy predator is bound to show up. This Coopers Hawk has made 2 attacks ...