Purple Martin Forum

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 t...

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

I 3rd Tom and Rob. Depends which part of the season we are in here. Behavior changes.

Good luck sir,
Phil

That pic looks familiar?? lol Great post and story Rob! Beautiful, well built house! Keep us posted on your dad’s progress throughout the season sir! I hope he fills up with Martins this year!

Good luck my friend!
Phil

No chicks yet…. Did a nest check Sunday, 111 eggs so far and more to come, my first are due to hatch May 2nd. We had a much cooler late winter, early spring up here too but they started laying a week earlier this year, no idea why.. Since they want the samples when they are around 21 days old I’m go...

Congrats Unk, you did it! Glad it helped!
Boy, 25 inches! You should be able to launch those things to the moon! lol Like Tom said, practice with it using other things so you don’t waste any crickets.
I get my crickets from Fluker Farms. I’ve had no issues.
Good luck!
Phil

Unk, When you are on the page where the new topics are listed, bottom right hand corner of your screen, it says “jump to”. Press that, from the drop down menu, bottom line that’s says “purple Martin forum”, press that, On the next screen that pops up in the upper left hand corner it will say “new to...

Hi Mrs Linda, sorry for the delayed reply haven’t been on here in a few days. Yes, I would recommend sprinkling a small amount of sevin under the nest tray. That’s what myself and many landlords do. 1/8 to 1/4 tsp is plenty, a little goes a long way. You want to use the old sevin with 5% carbaryl, n...

Yep, I got the sample bag the other day.

I agree… The only reason for a colony that size to abandon is predation…. What type of predator guards does he have?
With no access ports to do nest checks and monitor you won’t catch it early, before it’s too late…

Phil

Mrs Linda, If it’s been 4 days as of today you can check tomorrow, that would be day 5…. The reason they say to do that is if you want to calculate when your first egg is laid, then when hatch date will be, then earliest possible fledge date. If you don’t care about those dates for your records you ...

Tom, Of course, no problem at all. It will be nice to see them put to good use and actually have some birds in them.. lol I measured 6 of them and they were like 1/16 small if I remember correctly… I did follow the instructions and put the porch flush with the bottom of the entrance instead of using...

What a beautiful place to work! All that wildlife around you every day! Way better than therapy! And you are right there to monitor the racks, win win! I’ve always liked the look of the natural gourds, each one so unique. I’m sure the visitors are intrigued and a great place to get some exposure to ...

I would get NOTHING done at work with those to watch!
Love the look of the natural gourds!

Phil

Yep, that sounds like they’re getting ready. If you wake up really early, like an hour before sunrise you’ll hear them dawn singing from the cavities. This is usually a sign the female is laying eggs..

Phil

I’ve always thrown piles of pine straw spread out in the field about 40 ft from my housing and let them decide if they want to use it. I’m on my 3rd batch out there. Most have been using it. I prenest with pine straw so they add to what is already there. A few will take some of the pine straw I pren...

Thank you Mrs Linda. Like Thomas said, you still have time, SY’s keep arriving into May here and I think LA is close to the same from what I’ve read. As far as nest building, the female does most of the heavy lifting and chooses the cavity she prefers. The male helps some but mostly guards and prote...

Hi all, Did my second official nest check of the season this afternoon. All cavities have nests built in them. Five cavities with eggs for a total of 22. Three have 5 eggs in them so first eggs 12 April, a week earlier than last year. We’ve had a much cooler winter/spring this year so that kinda sur...

Laura, Tom nailed it with solid advice as always! Day two of bad weather was when mine started to take the flipped crickets this year. You’re going to go through some crickets at first so don’t get discouraged. What seemed to trigger them starting to go for the crickets, for me, was when I flipped m...

First, very nice looking house. Great craftsmanship! I have the 90 degree turn on my sunset inn house and the martins love it! I feel it keeps the parents and hatchlings safe from a predator reaching in and snatching one. Deep compartments help as well. Of course once the young are moving around and...