Purple Martin Forum

Sorry for the late reply, Terry. First adult showed up 2/17 in the Pee Dee of SC. We currently have around 30 martins.

Good luck on your upcoming season, Lisa. It is turning colder this coming week in SC as well, so I hope they hold off just a few days before deciding to arrive.

I've been looking at SC and NC reports, and they seem to be reporting (same reporter / location) earlier than last year as well. I usually get the first ones around the 22nd of February in NE SC, Marlboro Co. We'll see what happens.

Tor

Sorry about the attacks on your colony. When you say decoys, what decoys are you using? I use several dove decoys located in strategic locations at the colony. I don't put them up until the middle of the season. I see little activity before that time. The peek of the hawk attacks at my colony are as...

Yes, decoys work. Mostly when you try to start up attracting Martins. 2-3 on perching rods above or near the gourds / house. As soon as you get past 5-10 pair, they don't tend to work as good, not to say they don't work at all when you already have a few pair regularly every year. By that time the M...

Wanted to share this informative Purple Martin article on Audubon. Very interesting read, although some of the information is rather sad (Martins declining). Enjoy. https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2022/this-tiny-brazilian-island-could-hold-key-purple I apologize if the Article has been posted ...

Great news. Hope you have a great season. Happy New Year.

Tor

Looks very good, Tom. I keep my snake nets quite a bit lower, underneath the winch. That way I can lower the rack a little lower. But, same outcome. Have had no snakes above the net. In it? Yes. A few over the years. My "problem" is hawks. Putting out dove decoys all around the colony help...

C.C.Martins wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 30, 2024 1:26 pm

Tor,
Those look awesome!!! The aluminum tube is a wonderful idea, 100% water tight.

Me too, love these projects!

Happy 2025!

Ohhhh, I see two arrivals in FL. You won't be far behind, Tom

As promised, we're giving them some more room for this year. I still got about a month and a half to complete. Waiting on a little warmer weather so we can pour concrete. Love off season projects.....for the martins :grin: Working on installing vents and aluminum sleeves on the gourds. If you drill ...

Yea keep playing that Dawn song. They less than 2% of the fledglings for any colony return to that site I’m guessing to prevent in breeding. So those young’s that make it back have to go somewhere to start a new colony or add to the population of a current colony that still has room. I have 80 cavi...

December 27 in Florida
January 6 in Texas

Have Conley II's on all my gourds, and have not had a breach yet. Not to say they are better than Crescents, it was just what I ended up using.

Dave,

Yes, put up a 4th 24-gourd rack. Gemini this time. From experience, they fill most of the rack during the season after the expansion, so we'll see.

Just about 2 months wait here in north-eastern SC. Plenty of time to get it all ready.

Our of-season task will be to install a Gemini 24 rack, as our current 3 Super-24's are next to full every year. So why not add some space :-)

The last few headed south on the 11th at our site. Great season this year. Total fledged was 356, which is the highest I've seen at our colony.

I would still drill them out. I have all Troyer horizontal and vertical gourds. I have the dimples on all drilled out at an upward angle plus ventilated caps. IMO you really can’t have too much ventilation once the heat of summer arrives. I’ll keep the plug in the caps till the temps get consistent...

I currently have 1 deluxe 12 gourd and 1 round rack 12 unit that I have added 4 more gourds for a total of 28 gourds. My plan is to purchase the 8 unit gourd rack for next year. I will go back to the original 12 gourds on my round rack. This will give me a total of 32 gourds. I believe that will be...

After retiring, we bought a house where I thought we could attract purple martins. We are less than a mile from a lake that has purple martins nesting in aluminum housing. I installed a 8 unit vertical gourd system (with a large handful of white pine needles in each gourd) on a 2" square alumi...