Purple Martin Forum

I have had the same issue. 5 dead last Monday. I assume they starved. I have fed but because I work full time, its just not possible to feed enough or stand in the driving rain to feed. I'm all outa crickets now but looks like the rain pattern is finally coming to an end. 23.5' of rain since 5/6 wit...

permethrin on the outside of the gourds. The martins never come into contact with it and the mites all eventually wonder outside and get into it. Works fine.

Glad your having a good year. I am as well but sad to say its coming to an end. the nice March weather we had allowed them to get an earlier start laying eggs I think and now all but a few have fledged. I bet they are all gone before the weekend is over. I wish they would lay a second clutch on year...

KathyF wrote:CHenry - a nest change at the very least, would help reduce the parasite load.

The permethrim spray on the outside worked fine. 24 hours later, no sign of mites.

How do you kill them once you trap them? I really need to research these traps and make one...mostely so they quit eating the dogs food.

I did a nest check last night and several of the gords had mites crawling on the outside. I sprayed Permethrin all over the outside and around the door. At least any mites that comes out will be killed. The ones inside are safe unless they comes out. I figure this is better than nothing. Never thoug...

MamaBruff wrote:t to keep wasps from building in the vent.

Thats kind of funny, I dont have to deal with wasps anymore since getting the Martin colony. They eat them.

My sparrow trap is in a wooden house down low about 5' off the ground and the martins don't use it, only sparrows. I usually catch 8-10 and they give up or have found other housing elsewhere. Keep at it, they will thin out.

Dang, how do you kill of all those? Back the trailer into the garage and start the car? lol

I lowered my gourd rack last weekend to check things out and I found what looked just like a house sparrow nest. So, I commence removing it and a blue egg fell to the ground. I thought HS eggs were off white with dark speckles? I mean i know that's what they look like but do they sometimes lay a blu...

I dont mean to hijack your thread again but a quick update on my situation. My feed pan had only a few dried up egg peices and no crickets in it last night. There was no wind to blow them away so I must assume the Martins ate them. I added more crickets so they will have breakfast this morning follo...

I share your frustration. Here in south central OK we got no snow but the wind and temps have been brutal. I mounted an aluminum pie pan to my gourd rack arms and filled it with crickets and scrambled eggs. I checked it last night and some of it was gone but I dont know if they wind blew it out or i...

March 15-16 has been the normal arrival date in the past 5 years but my son saw one doing a flyby this evening so we grabbed the gourds and went and hung them before dark. Gotta round up some pine needles for nest material tomorrow.

Well This has been my best year yet, very little sparrow trouble, full Martin occupancy in the gourd rack and large hatch-ling numbers. Although I have lost a few martins to death - 2 dead in the gourds and I found 2 floating in my pond - this has been a stellar year for me. I counted 67 eggs before...

Nice! I have 11 pair and all have laid eggs but one. Most all laid 6 eggs with a couple only laying 5 so its going to be very crowded in them gourds this year!

My gourd rack comes out of storage today! Need to go find some pine straw. Wonder if I could use wheat stray instead? I already got that. hmmm.
Anyway, a welcome home party is in order!

I am in south central OK and already the scout report shows PM in Durant and Ardmore OK. Is this a sign they may show up here sooner than previous years? Normally they arrive here March 15 +/- a day. Thats almost a month off but they are already showing up 100 miles south of me.

Good luck to you this year Nancy and good luck too all. I just pray we don't have a scorching hot summer like last year! I have never seen so many nest jumpers and I had several casualties from the dang heat. With that in mind, this mild winter, I wonder if they will return sooner than previous year...

I had 10 jumpers in all that I know of, 8 of them parished in the heat on the ground while I was at work or gone for the weekend. I found 2 alive and added them to a nest of 3 about the same sife. Other than the heat, this was a good MArtin year for me, I had a total of 78 birds including babie and ...

I have only been doing this for a few years now and I have never heard of the martins showing this early. I see someone reported a sighting here in Tuttle OK yesturday! My goard rach isn't up completely yet, I put it up with 3 goards on it to see if I could start shooting sparrows a little early but...