Purple Martin Forum

Such a worrisome April in southeastern Ohio at our colony.! First, they were two weeks late and numbers are still down. Second, we have about 23 males and only 2 females!! Has anyone ever experienced this? Plus we got several subadult males a week ago and we don’t usually have them this early. We ha...

We are in southeastern Ohio, landlords for 30 years. About 35 nesting pairs last year. I am so worried about the lack of Martins this spring! We have never seen this. Had 2 on March 31, only one adult male hung around. Had a female for a few hours that didn’t stay, then a second adult male. Weirdest...

We don’t normally supplement feed so I don’t think ours are coming early for that reason. Actually, only 2 days earlier than normal arrival date. We have about 16-20 adults back and I just think since ours is a well established colony, ours that arrive early just want to be first to claim a nesting ...

Hey Ohio landlords, looking rough for our birds for possibly 7 consecutive days😡 40 and rain today, lows in the 20’s forecasted for 2 nights. Crossing fingers that the 53 forecasted for tomorrow holds true with no biting winds! No chance of insects flying on Tuesday, and Wednesday through Friday are...

Thanks to all. I guess I'll know today and tomorrow how many are affected. At dusk last evening, I watched them jockey back and forth. As all settled, I saw tail feathers at a compartment opening. I fear it may be a dead Martin. Strikes against us, I still work full time and my husband is taking car...

Here in Ohio we are in our second winter!! Last week we had two consecutive days of no bug weather, but luckily day three they could forage. Now today is day two of 40's, with constant rain and wind and wind chill in the 20's and 30's We have had the birds literally "fall from the sky" fro...

I am at my wit's end! We have had 8 nestlings on the ground this season we know of. We have been landlords 20+ years and never had this problem. We just took two nestlings to a bird sanctuary last Tuesday, only to acquire 3 more, and a fourth on the ground this morning. We have been feeding every tw...

Hi Mike, I got crickets and we flipped them yesterday but they just flew off. Today was nicer, but still a pretty biting wind. I have watched their posture the last two days and they seem fine. Not supposed to get below 40 tonight, so that's encouraging. I absolutely LOVE having Martins but hate goi...

We are in southeast Ohio and our forecast sounds like yours. 45 and mostly sunny today, so praying they can feed
Tomorrow and beyond look great

Ok fellow Ohioans, is anyone worried about their Martins today? We have two ASY males back who should have fed well the last two days. Awoke to 23degrees here at home and snow. It is very windy and high of 34 today. 21 for tonight and only a high of 45 tomorrow. If sunny and not windy I'm hoping for...

Thanks!

We are in southeastern Ohio, and most of my colony has left to migrate. I have three active nests. Two of those have young at least 20 days old, as they are out on the porches begging for food. But I haven't seen young in the third, although the parents are feeding. On July 7, these three nests all ...

Haven't seen much on here about this horrible spring weather and landlords losing Martins We lost 10 that we know of last week and were only able to save one of 3 we gathered from the ground who were close to starvation Today will be day three, consecutively, of little to no feeding and I'm beside m...

Here in Ohio we had too many cold nights successively with day time temperatures not great for feeding. We lost 10 birds that we know of, 3 died in their boxes and the rest were literally falling out of the sky. We gathered 3 from the ground and kept them inside Tuesday night which dipped to 30 degr...

We are having terrible weather in Ohio with day two right now with no possibility of feeding. My Martins are landing across the road in horse pasture and lining up on the ground, just sitting there? We have mealworms on bed and breakfast they pay no attention to, they caught crickets last year, but ...

Thanks everyone, I'm feeling a little better. Husband and I sat on porch for an hour this morning and saw no activity anywhere, nor its head sticking out. I was thinking it must have fledged and felt such relief. BUT NO! Just got home from town and his head is out and chirping for food. Don't have m...

Thanks Tom, looks to be about ready to go, but doesn't come clear out on porch Two eggs in that nest on 6-30, so about the right age if it hatched maybe a week or less after. It has made it this far so maybe that's the case with getting its weight down, but I also wonder if the parents are inexperie...

Please help! I have one nestling remaining and it was being fed up until yesterday. I had two nests with young until this morning and remaining two fledged out of one of those nests early today I only have maybe 2 dozen birds still here, and I've watched the one remaining nestling for approximately ...

Hey Dave, it sounds like you had a great year! Was searching the forum for somebody close to us, we're located between Dresden and Zanesville. We have had more jumpers than ever this year, and attributed it to the heat. We did our usual nest check/changes/head counts on July 2nd. Had less than norma...

Thanks everyone. My husband is in town right now getting supplies to make guards, and is going to look for the decoys around home we've never put up. Our birds are already stressed right now because of the rain and cold we've been having. 15 degrees below normal right now, wind chill of 41 and only ...