Purple Martin Forum

A couple of crows have learned how to eat my martins. They fly up to house when a baby puts its head out and snatch it. Some times it the crow will catch a martin when it is flying to the hole to feed a young one. The martins are upset by this and gang up on the crow and try to chase it away. So far...

A hawk grabbed a martin off a perch on the martin house as I watched this morning. Very sad day! The hawks have caught several martins here over the past years and I do not know what to do about this. Perhaps I should take down the houses because this is not a safe zone for the martins.

Last evening a scout landed on house. For some reason I was not able to report this because the report page would not let me log in.

December 28th.

Just noticed thousands of tree swallows passing through this morning. Wont be long before the martins start coming.

Which is best? Clean out last years nests or leave them in so the birds only have to rebuild.

Hawk got 3 of my martins that I saw. Possible that it got more.

Every year for the past 15 years I have had to help the martins fight off the starlings and sparrows by tearing out nests and trapping many persistent pests. This year a tough bunch of martins fought off every one of the pests without any help from me. I did lose 3 martins to a hawk but as soon as y...

I see martins evidently feeding most of the time at high altitudes. To see how many bugs are up there log onto http://vimeo.com/21493827 and you will be supprised

I observe that my martins appear to usually feed at high altitudes and wondered how many bugs are up there. I found an article that indicates that there are millions of all kinds up there. Log on to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/books/excerpt-insectopedia.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 to find out...

Night before last first two scouts arrived. Last night on their return just after sunset the first one arrived and went into the house. The second one arrived and on landing to go into the house a hawk came out of nowhere and caught the scout just before it got into the house. Broke my heart.

I watched my martins building their nest and one pair had a very lazy husband. He would follow the female to the ground and watch her pick out a stick. Then he would race her back to the nest and if he got there first would make it hard for her to get the stick into the opening. This went on for a c...

12 martins, some starlings, some sparrows, and a squirrel are busy with their annual battle to see who gets what compartment in the martin house. The squirrel is really a bad actor. It has cut my tv cable several times, ate the caulking around roof vents, killed a queen palm by chewing off head of t...

In just a few days some martins will arrive. For the past 2 days we have seen large flocks of tree swallows and in the past we have martins in a few days after.

Finally got first martins last night. Just before dark I saw 5 martins drop out of the sky and enter my martin house to spend the night. Usually get first martin in late December so they are a little late this year.

I noticed today hundreds of tree swallows migrating through this area. This always happens this time of the year and will go on for the next few weeks and is usually followed by our first sighting of martins. We will be watching for the first martins to arrive in he next couple of weeks.

Fifty birds have fledged here but one lonely baby still in the nest. The martins all leave in the evening but each mourning about 25 come back to look at the baby still here. They all try to land on the perch by its nest and the baby comes out to peck at them and chase them away. It seems they are t...

I was sitting on my patio at dusk watching my scouts come in to go to bed. The 5th one landed to go into the house opening and just as he landed a small hawk scooped in and snatched him and carried it away. I have been getting several new scouts each day in the last couple of days. I sure did hate t...

I finally got my first martin of this year. At dusk I saw it dart into the house. In all previous years I have always had the first martin at the end of December, so they are late this year. We have had some of the coldest weather the past two weeks that we have had since I moved here 12 years ago. ...

I have used this trap for several years and had very good luck. I wait until the sparrows start building a nest then put the trap in the compartment so the entrance matches carefully with the entrance to the compartment. It works every time. Some times if I just catch the female the male will go get...