Purple Martin Forum

Just saw a message from Laura Laxton, that her father Dick Laxton passed away last night. RIP Dick

I responded to your email request.

For the past few mornings, the radar I am looking at indicates a slight ring which could be a roost. The center of the ring appears to be right at Hwy. 44 due south of Carthage.

Please keep in mind that a red band does not necessarily mean it originated in Central Wisconsin. My permit allows me to paint federal bands different colors to distinguish the landlord site where I conduct banding sessions. I currently use red bands on the right leg at my site here in S.E. Kansas a...

Photobucket is no longer allowing pictures stored on their site to be copied to 3rd party sites unless the photobucket owner pays an annual fee of $400. All pictures from my photobucket account that I have shared on this forum over the years have been removed by photobucket. I am sure this affects a...

As a general rule, I band nestlings between 12 and 22 days of age. If you have a nest of only one to three nestlings, the parents possibly have fed them very well and these nestlings will be a little more developed than a nest containing four or more nestlings. If I see this, I have banded nestlings...

In addition to plugging holes at my own site, I also find the need to plug holes at various landlord sites while conduction banding sessions. If nestlings are over 24 or 25 doa, I recommend plugging the hole. Both John and Louise make good points. It is best to have at least one helper when plugging...

Yes, that is my normal height of the housing on my pole. Right now it has been about 10" lower due to all the storms we have had. When we get past all the spring storms, I will raise it a little, especially if I have nestlings ready to fledge. All of my gourds and houses are vented. Yes, I inst...

I have one pole with 12 house cavities and 12 gourds. All cavities are taken or dominated by ASY pairs. The SY pair in question were raised in a gourd and that particular gourd is one of two gourds being dominated by an adult pair. I have had SY martins nest at my current site but it is not until th...

No, they did not arrive here at the same time. He showed up two or three days before she did so they were not traveling together. This is a first for me to have brother and sister "apparently" paired up. They are still here trying to acquire a cavity.

Billie: Since only a very small percentage of SY martins return to their birth site, I would guess it is more of a rarity for brother and sister to pair up. The interesting question for me is, do they recognize each other as siblings? Years ago, Steve Kroenke did an excellent post regarding parents ...

Kyler:
No, I have not.

I have two banded SY martins that have apparently paired up and for the past two days have been trying to fight their way into a vacant cavity that has been dominated by an adult pair. I have been watching this pair of SY's very close the past couple of days. The auxiliary band number of the SY male...

I was inside the house and heard a lot of martin's chirping from my martin housing. Went to the window and saw two SY females that just arrived this morning. Their arrival is one day earlier than last year. Since they are not SY males, I will not report but wanted to let landlords in Kansas know the...

Kyler: Without fail, this topic arises every year. Like so many others this season, my martins were running late to return. I do believe it was the cold rainy weather we had a couple of weeks ago that slowed the early arrivals in our area. This past weekend, I doubled in number of martins spending t...

Alan: I also have had Conley II entrances breached by starlings on my Troyer gourds. If you raise the height of the porch no more than 1/8" from the bottom of the entrance hole it will help to eliminate almost all breaches by starlings. You can use a piece of wood, a piece of sentra or any of o...

Congrats Deb. Always a thrill to see that first one return each year. Hope you have a great year.

Teri:
I don't know if the PMCA sells them or not. I do know Troyer's has them and I got some last year for the same reason you explained. It is not difficult to replace them; just a little time consuming.

Kyler: The reference to the BBL from Toy answers most of your questions regarding how to obtain a banding permit. As far as age of nestlings when banded, I would say, on average, it is around 12 to 22 doa. Dave: I don't have the book you referenced to know exactly what was written, but only a licens...

I have only used Troyer's horizontal gourds at my colony's. John is correct. Troyer's sells a tunnel you can slip right over the end of your gourd, which contains a Conley II opening and porch. Just drill a hole in the top and bottom of your gourd and attach the tunnel with push pins which Troyer's ...