Purple Martin Forum

charlesgremillion wrote: ↑

Sat May 30, 2026 10:54 am

Can anyone give me information concrinstalling hawk guards for S & K houses. :
Thanks

Is your house in it's original configuration, single rooms, or have you converted it to two room suites?

Crows are easily mistaken for GBHs because they are similar in size and both appear solid black but there is a distinction: the GBH has a white band on it's tail, which is especially noticeable while in flight. Huge difference: like all raptors, GBHs grab their prey with long, strong legs with talon...

Stingray, well your hands are a bit tied but hopefully you get a chance to use an air horn when they show. Better yet, if the neighbor would be receptive to tooting one too. Our son recommended removing the "bell" off the horn, saying it really makes it obnoxious. Your setting sounds idyll...

Sorry to hear of your terrible plight with crows. Unless you are prohibited by neighborhood laws, use their super intelligence in your favor: blast a shotgun on sight, not to kill, but to educate. It might take a few blasts since you have stated you have a large murder of them. Also, how close are y...

Just confirming that the chicken snakes are, indeed, all around. Last week, relocated 4 chicken snakes from our chicken coop (<100 ft away from the martin houses, the PM houses were not breached). Saw another pair courting/mating 1/2 mile away at a cattle guard. The female of that pair was pink stri...

I sympathize for your loss, it's saddening to lose a bird. I see that T-14 entrance holes are elevated off the floor, like my SREHs from a different maker. Most years, a few starling kills and they stay away. I'll see after the recent kills. If they persist, I'll add a piece of PVC S4S 1x4 on top of...

The ruthless, dominant starling must be eliminated immediately. They will ruin the PM eggs and savagely kill the chicks and adults. I've shot 5 in the last 5 days but they are tough to shoot because they don't sit still long (way less than 5 seconds when they know they're being hunted). Finally hung...

Great to hear of your successful, active colony vs the many abandoned colonies seen roadside. I considered netting as a deterrent, the reservation was it works just a little too well for extracting the caught rat snake. I prefer relocating them to barns/fields to find rats vs killing them. Instead, ...

Does the PMCA lobby to protect the PMs? I contribute to your organization and this would be my primary request as a member: to get these raptors removed from the protected list or, at least, get us an exception. We complain about PM numbers declining; I bet this 1 simple change would reverse that. M...

If you look to other songbirds, by and large they all make a new nest each litter. Larger birds such as eagles, owls, even woodpeckers do use an existing nest but likely change out the bedding, which is all we are doing. Houses only here: I use a 4" putty knife to extract the old matted nest &a...

Thanks for all the latest, informative suggestions. Fortunately, the weather has improved substantially with a few lows in the 30s but otherwise 60 to 80s highs so they aren't hungry. Already seeing grasshoppers, wasps and an assortment of other bugs, thankfully. Just need rain bad: my normally 12 a...

I enjoy perusing the Report but I recognize very few of the names; but I would Forum monikers. What am I missing, why don't more use their moniker, thereby enriching the Report?

You're welcome, glad to help a little. Yes, plug one of the 2 holes, the whole idea is to have 1 room completely isolated, no direct access to the outside. The result: all (vertical) middle cavities will be plugged along with 1 of the ends that go straight through. I pre-load the bedrooms only with ...

You can configure your house to have 6 - 6x12" suites and that should eliminate the crow attacks. See attached and see a recent post, "S & K MARTIN HOUSE", by Martinmelody. Hope that helps. In 25 years, I've never had any problems with crows. In fact, I feed them to keep them arou...

Thanks fellows, I've had mixed feelings about their return this year: excited, of course; mixed with dread, of deja vu. Now, after reading your informative replies, I am almost relishing the chance to sustain them, if it weren't so critical. At least now, I feel like I have a fighting chance but wou...

Morning Tom, thanks for the great info provided and for replying promptly as time is of the essence. Hopefully, they won't be back for awhile especially since I lost all my earlybirds last year. You are right, our sacrifice is nothing compared to what they endure. Interesting about continuing feedin...

Expecting some arrivals soon, in this cold snap, so looking for any & all successful ways to accomplish this. It will be a life or death situation for these poor PMs after their long journey back to these bleak current conditions (sub-freezing, freezing rain). I have dried crickets, dried mealwo...

Timely topic, thanks fellows. Reminds me of new born calves born in the dead of winter: if they nurse right away and fill their tummies, they normally survive. If it were only so easy with PMs. Last year was a disaster here: 50 early ASY males died from the weather. This year experimenting with a h...

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