Purple Martin Forum

This lousy cold weather in northern Illinois! No SY birds at our location...Has anyone in northern Illinois seen any yet?

Maryanne and Henry

It is always good to see the scout report seeing others in northern IL who note returning PM for the season.

Bill, we are about 65 miles east of your location. Our season so far is about same as last year, and last year was a good one for us. Perhaps the weather we had recently in northern Illinois has had some effect in your area. There is an established site just north of us in Twin Lakes WI that is on w...

Thank you Louise. I hope someone is in contact with her and can share her current whereabouts.

She was my mentor in northern Illinois....She moved away. Does anyone know where she is???

Have any members in Lake or McHenry County seen ASY's yet? Only TS and BB here so far.

Just how is the critter removed from the trapped gourd? The spare-o-door works great for me with the Trio houses.

What are opinions of landlords about the use of Sevin? We had a mite problem last year that we would like to be on top of this season.

We are right on IL/WI border....last year April 8 was our first sighting. VERY IMPORTANT...keep compartments free from sparrows and starlings or they will drive PMs off! We block all openings until we see first PMs.

I am technically a "waiting" landlord! Had a pair in '02 that fledged 4, had a pair in '06 that fledged 6, but none since! I would love to hear from other landlords in my vicinity (very north eastern IL/our property borders WI). We had pm's years ago at another property..... Here we have t...

Thank you Emil and John. Part of my problem is that I have ended up in the emergency room as a result of my encounters with wasps/hornets/yellow jackets! It seems as the years go by they are more of a problem at our place than I have ever experienced! But I'll keep trying with the Ivory soap, Pam an...

Thank you for your suggestions! More frequent monitoring will be in order. Good news: one bluebird box on the trail has 5 eggs as of today....plenty of tree swallows, and some chickadees in the boxes on the trail in the wooded area...........still waiting for the martins.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I have tried both bar soap and the petroleum jelly and both quite frankly are ineffective for any period of time. As example, after less than a week, the wasps are back! Last week because of cooler weather we are having in northern IL, we found "clusters" of...

We have bluebirds, tree swallows.........plenty of housing but no pm's yet. Problem: wasps in boxes along the trail. Have destroyed those when we find them. They return all too often and then box unused or abandoned. My husband believes just to spray with insecticide, but I resist. Problem: still ha...