Purple Martin Forum

Here's a first: a headless martin impaled on a barbed wire fence. Loggerhead shrikes often impale their prey on the barbed wire fences on our property, but it's usually mice, insects, and the occasional bat, but I've never seen this. If it wasn't a shrike, how can this be explained? I'm perplexed.

Hi guys, It's been a while since I've posted, but I have been keeping up with the goings on around here. I have 5 different gourd racks spread out on our farm, and the martins have been pretty thick this year. I also have 60+ nest boxes for bluebirds, prothonotary warblers, great-crested flycatchers...

This far south in Georgia we don't have tree swallows, though I wish we did. Up in the mountain areas of north Georgia I've seen them nesting, but none in central Georgia where we are. I made a screech owl box a few years ago, and hung it on a tree in the woods. As far as I know, nothing but squirre...

I host a number of species that I deliberately target, and I build nest boxes specifically for certain species. The majority is bluebirds, but also a large number of prothonotary warblers (my personal favorite), and great crested flycatchers use my nest boxes. I also have a couple of nest boxes for ...

HA! The house sparrow part sounds gross to me, but starlings aren't much different in size than mourning doves, and plenty of people around here eat those, including me. Maybe if I trap enough starlings this year, I'll give them a try and let y'all know.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8587512_eat-starlings-english-sparrows.html Has anyone seen this? This is just one of a handful of sites I've come across that deal with the consumption of starlings. Apparently in France they are eaten relatively regularly. I wish we could find a way to promote the regular h...

Thanks! I'm going to give it a try. I just don't want to have them not be able to enter and waste a new nest box. I specifically make a few slightly bigger boxes for the GCFL. I'll give it a go.

I've only ever used pine straw, especially since here in Georgia it's everywhere with all the pines we have. I haven't had issues with the nest getting too wet with pine shavings in other houses I have, but then again, gourds are a little different. On a side note, most of 'my' martins use my dad's ...

Howdy folks, Do any of you use or have you used pine shavings rather than pine straw in any of your housing or gourds? I use it often in my wood duck boxes and in many of my other nest boxes during the winter for any roosting birds. Also, if any of you ever put up housing for great-crested flycatche...

Both of those look like they're worth investigating. Thanks for the suggestions!

Most of my GCFL nest boxes are hung high in branches of trees, rather than on poles, which are not feasible with the number of nest boxes that I maintain. Most of the 2-inch hole boxes have been fine, but a few in certain places have been enlarged and used by gray squirrels. I'm also considering try...

I have searched far and wide for the metal nest box hole guards that prevent squirrels and woodpeckers from enlarging the entrance hole. I have plenty of 1.5 inch and 1.25 inch, but I cannot find any that are 2 inches. I've checked nearly every birding website there is, and no one has it in 2 inches...

Glad that you got it working. Thanks for clarifying how to download it for everyone else. It's a great ringtone, though sometimes I don't recognize it at first sometimes, and I wonder why I'm hearing purple martins.
Cheers to a great PM season!
Ralph

I had a solo ASY male arrive two days ago here in central Georgia. I was just putting up a new gourd rack, and I hadn't yet raised my older one. Just as soon as I did, he went straight to them and started checking out different gourds. A second one showed up yesterday, so they are definitely coming ...

I did all that, and haven't received any spam at all. I scanned the QR code and then downloaded the ringtone and added it to itunes, then put it on my phone. I think it works for all smartphones. Other than the purple martin ringtone, I have a few other bird ones: chuck will's widow, barred owl, com...

Keith,
I'm not really sure about that. It would depend on what type of phone you have.

The first scout seemed very interested in what I was doing, as he spent most of the morning near the rack that I was working on. He was completely unafraid and a couple of times he landed on the top of the rack directly over me. I snapped a picture of him. Maybe he's lonely and just wanted some comp...

Thanks! Another martin showed up today to join the first one from yesterday. I got the purple martin ringtone at this site: http://www.myxer.com/ringtone/id/254371 ... le-Martin/

Cheers!

Yesterday I was out putting up a new gourd rack when I heard that familiar call: my first purple martin scout of the year. He was sitting on one of my older gourd racks, about 100 feet from where I was standing. I have a purple martin ringtone on my cell phone, so I played it. There was instant reco...

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and Louise for the link; it looks very interesting. I've decided to go ahead and put up my box for the kestrels, but be extra diligent in monitoring for starling takeovers.