Purple Martin Forum

My first purple martin, a female, showed up April 12, 4 days earlier than last year. My Troyer vertical gourds were not up yet, but it flew low right by the location of where the house would be. I got the house up that same night. The next day it was checking out the gourds. I now have 2 adult males...

Thanks for all the feedback.

Dan

On June 10 all eight gourds had eggs. One week later, June 17, one gourd had 0 eggs that had 4 eggs 1 week earlier. There was no nest disturbance and I looked for leaves covering them up to no avail. I have a predator guard, so I don't think any climbing animal could have gotten to them. On June 24 ...

Thanks for your opinion. I have 14 martins hanging around my 8 gourds now. They are starting nest building.
Dan

Yesterday while nest checking I came across a gourd with scratching sounds and bird sounds locked in mortal combat. The birds didn't seem to notice my lowering the 8 vertical gourd unit or the 3 gourds I checked before coming to the fourth gourd where the battle was going on. I opened the observatio...

Last year was my first year hosting purple martins. I ended up with 5 nesting pairs out of 8 Troyer vertical gourds. Eighteen martins fledged. My first adult male showed up this year on April 16. I now have 5 adult males and 3 (I assume) adult females. I'm sure more will arrive in the coming days. I...

I put up a 8 vertical gourd rack on May 8 in Buffalo, MN. I had 5 nesting pairs for the season. Egg laying started on June 2 and the last pair started laying eggs on June 25. I had a total of 27 eggs. One did not hatch. All 5 made it out in the first batch. In one of the gourds, 1 died at about 8 da...

Thanks for the advice. My first batch of Martins have hatched now. One out of 4 pair. I found a single egg in a fifth gourd. Do Martin sometimes lay an extra egg or do you think this is another pair laying eggs?
Dan
Buffalo, MN

I have ordered Troyer gourd caps with the vent. Do I still need to drill out 1/4” vent holes?

Dan
Buffalo, MN

My nest check this week showed 2 gourds with 6 eggs each and 2 gourds with 5 eggs each. There were 2 other gourds with green leaves. Do martins sometimes pick 2 gourds and complete nests in both before deciding which nest to lay eggs in? The most martins I have seen at one time is 9. A second ASY ma...

Thanks for the welcome and affirming thoughts. As a kid, our next door neighbors always had purple martins. I was always enthralled with them. This is the first time I have successfully attracted them.
Dan

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 alumin...