Purple Martin Forum

Do you have speakers up for Dawnsong playing? If you do, I really think that you can avert owl attacks by covering up the martin noise that draws them in. We didn't use music, but our pool pump made enough white noise to drown out all of those noctornal noisiness. Good luck! I hope the owls stay away!

I've never had luck with the flinging of crickets - however, I have had GREAT luck putting them into the compartments where the martins are staying. (One bad year all six of the early martins crammed into one comparment!) When we checked later, the compartments with resident martins had no crickets ...

Oh yes....we had the house up for six years and didn't really do anything to maintain the cable. Otherwise, absolutely no problems. I feel really comfortable in recommending this type of system to you. It's really easy to use and I can do it by myself - although my husband and I do all of our nest c...

The cable thing really is our fault, because we didn't maintain it the way we should have. (There are lots of posts on here about maintain cables - tying a rope to it to pull it thorugh, WD40, etc.) We WILL be taking care of the new cable. Basically it rusted through. There are numerous stories abou...

Good news? Bad news? Well, we went out and took off all of the porches on the gourds. A bit later, lo and behold, I saw my first martin of the year. It was strange because it wasn't calling. (I think some of you know where I am going with this.) So, the martin lands on various gourds, but just can't...

I went back a few pages and saw that this seems to be a recurring problem for others - although I do want to say it appears that I have mutant NORTHERN starlings.

I will try to adjust my porch heights.

Like I said, never had it happen before, and I was pretty freaked out about it.

Hey All! I have just witnessed the most depressing sight. It seems that starlings have taken up residence in my supergourds. A bit of background.... My site has been up for five years. I have all SREH (crescents) on all of my housing. In all five years I have chuckled evilly when the starlings have ...

Thanks for your help everyone!

Off to get a new trap....watch out HOSP!! Bwhahahahahahaaaa!

Hi All! Each year, our sparrow problem seems to get worse. I guess the more PMs we get, the more HOSP are attracted to the site. I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time worrying and taking out these pests. I am trying to find a trap for my Lone Star Alamo house. The problem is the crescent open...

Bluebird boxes have to be set up about 100 yards apart. That seems to be about the extent of their territorial range.

However, you can put up two bluebird boxes within 15 or 30 feet of each other and you may luck out and get tree swallows in one and bluebirds in the other. That's what happened to us!

Thanks for all of the great info on owls. Currently, our swimming pool is fairly close to our martin colony. We make sure to run the pump/filter all night long. I know that our neighbors think we're crazy for starting this in April, but it's not because we're worried about water quality - believe me...