Purple Martin Forum

I noticed that after I put a 2' extension on my poles the rope dings the pole in the wind. Sometimes if the wind is blowing just right it will ding loudly like a giant wind chime! I ended up tying an old T-shirt around the rope just above head height....no more annoying dinging pole.

Hi Kathy, Sorry for the delayed response. We determined that it's a combination of the narrow tunnel and reverse condensation in the gourd. The tunnels are too narrow to allow the young to turn around and poop out the front door. Normally, when a parent feeds them an insect, the young turn around an...

Hi Linda, I remember you from years ago, sorry to hear the martins are so stubborn..... Been there myself! It took me 13 years to attract them in central MN! If you would consider donating the equipment to our efforts I can assure you it will go to a good cause here in Minnesota to house martins. We...

Hi Jean, I keep all of my interior porches in the excluder gourds for a few reasons: -they provide a hiding place for the young in case of a predator attack -easier for the adults to feed with the young standing on the interior porch -adults can take the fecal sacs out much easier with the young on ...

Hi KellyTee, I have a 24-unit gourd rack that runs near 100% occupancy each year. I found that as the colony gets older, they get much better at raising young, and the fledge rate gets better each year (if the weather cooperates). Are any of your neighbors interested in putting some housing up? That...

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to pass along that Mike North, the Minnesota Purple Martin Working Group Banding Coordinator has recaptured a Black-Capped Chickadee which has set a new longevity record for the species! Follow this link to learn more and hear him on the radio: http://www.kfai.org/node/40594

I personally manage 9 colonies in central MN (outside of our public colonies for the working group), here are their overall stats: 156 nests had 815 eggs 682 eggs hatched 632 fledged hatch rate 84% fledge rate of hatched young 93% fledge rate of total eggs laid 78% Once again, the Assisted Living Un...

Attached are some more pictures of different configurations with venting on the plastic horizontal gourds with tunnels. I've been making notes on feather condition, condition of the nest, and presence of moisture on the walls of the gourd. I noted that all of the tunneled gourds had feces built up i...

I have had trouble in previous years with plastic gourds becoming wet, nasty, and foul in the final days before the young fledge. This problem is so extreme that it effects the condition of flight feathers on the fledglings to the point of not being able to fly. Fecal matter builds up in the tunnel,...

Steve, excellent information and I couldn't agree more with the need to vent the Troyers. Up here in the north we have a similiar problem with them building up moisture. The problem for me starts at around 21 days of age. The gourd with young are heated up in the hot july weather, then then the cool...

My deepest sympathies to the Stoll family & friends for the loss of a wonderful man. He touched so many with his love for purple martins, myself included.

Hi Bob,

The roost is in the SW corner of Lake Osakis. Pretty much west-central MN. This is the largest yet documented here in Minnesota.

Hi Bob, Do you know of any roosts up that way? Our roost here in Minnesota is continually increasing in size....last night on the pontoons we noticed masses of martins coming in from the north. We estimated about 80,000+ last night. We have also been reading leg bands at the staging areas and are ge...

Hi everyone,

Just thought I would share a picture the Caroll Henderson snapped last Wednesday at our PM roost in Lake Osakis. Absolutely incredible! We estimate that there were 70,000 martins!

I'm pleased to announce that we are once again going to bring pontoons out to the roost on Big Swan Lake near Burtrum, MN starting in a couple weeks. Please contact me (call or email) ASAP to get the desired date you want. The roost is expected to be far better than last year, which was effected by ...

Hi Brad, Martin young are banded at 9-20 days old, it's from about 23-28 that this becomes a problem. In fact, most of the nests are bone dry when we band them. It's interesting that this problem is only serious up here. It's also interesting that this problem has never happened in our wooden housin...

Another landlord here in Minnesota also had trouble with some gourds retaining too much moisture. I'm definitely going to add the pvc elbows with some type of plug to open/close when needed. One tunneled plastic gourd was so bad the young smelled terrible and had feces stuck all over their feathers ...

Thanks for chiming in on this.....now my suspicions are validated. I'm going to add pvc elbows and the caps for easy on/off venting next season. Other than this, our martins in Minnesota have had the best year in a long time.....warm weather, patchy rain to keep the insects going, and some colonies ...

I was wondering if any landlords out there experience condensation in airtight plastic gourds in the last week before fledge? I have had some problems with airtight plastic gourds accumulating moisture leading to a nasty smell and fermenting wet nests. I used to think that maybe moisture was wicking...

Up till this morning, there have been very few martins around my colonies here at Mille Lacs. I was actually worried that something happened to them in migration. This morning, every porch had a pair of martins sitting on it, and there are high numbers in other colonies here as well.