Purple Martin Forum

Thanks everyone for your input. The reason I am dismissing raccoons as the primary cause for missing eggs/young is two fold: The T-14 is on top of a 3 1/2 rectangular steel pole. I have never heard of a raccoon climbing a pole like this. Second, and most importantly, raccoons create a mess. They ran...

A friend of mine is devastated: He started this season with a t-14 that was almost full of martins. He has another 10 hole house that was almost full too. The problem is that early in the season, eggs started disappearing regularly. Some nests had all of their eggs go missing. Later most of the nest...

This year's event will be hosted at St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville on Saturday June 22nd. Information about the location, agenda, other things to do at St. John's and where to stay (if you are overnighting) are posted on the www.mnmartin.org website (forum.)
Jim and Jeana K

I have been trying to establish a PM colony for four years. Each year I have martins checking out my T-14 and Gourd rack. Every year there is always some impediment preventing success. Last year it was TS's. This year it was Bluebirds! We have a Bluebird pair in a box 140 feet away from my martin ho...

I too have a PMCA nest box trap for my T-14. It has worked well trapping starlings and HOSPs. This spring has brought more starlings than ever and at the suggestion of someone's post in the forum I added an irresistible lure to my trap. My wife bought a pack of blue-green colored plastic eggs from a...

Kelly, the temps are going to stay very cool for the next 7 to 10 days. I read on the forum that martins can't feed if the temp remains below 50 degrees--no flying insects. Considering the forecast, I don't think that ASY's will move further north until the weather warms. In the mean time consider t...

:?: Steve, first let me say thank you for the time and effort you spent on posting your thorough and informative article on Owl predation. As a teenager in Minnesota (more than 30 years ago) I had several successful colonies of martins. I lived in a small town with several large colonies nearby and ...