Purple Martin Forum

20200508_194300.jpg I got a colony started at a friends pond about a mile away in 2016. I flipped crickets in an snow and ice storm the following spring until they started to eat and switched to flipping eggs the next day. It took a few more years to get my first pair at my place, but they ate off ...

[quote="Thomas Maddox" post_id=313373 time=1748301445 user_id=24804] How did you train them to eat there? Great job by the way! [/quote] They eat on the pole feeder most of the time, but if they are really hungry they will land on my deck and wait. [attachment=0]20250502_170833.jpg[/attach...

]With 3 days of cold ,windy and rainy weather the birds are very hungry. I was feeding 30-35 eggs a day and they still wanted more.

Great to hear of all the success in southern Wisconsin! The weather has been so up and down with too many cool windy rainy days.
Feeding lots of scrambled eggs the past few days.

20221028_165526.jpg 1.jpg Not sure what is the best , but i started using soybean stems a few years ago with great success. After the field is pick I take the riding lawn mower and start driving in circles and making piles to pick up. I store them in a 50 gallon drum just making sure thay are compl...

Anything that you don't like about it? Or any problems that you noticed . I would really like about the insulating properties of the poly wood and if moisture buildup could happen .

I wondering if when they fledge the parents will bring them back to the site at night or if they will just start migrating south. Guess I'll have drive over and sit and watch next Thursday or Friday before dusk.

Rick.

Last nest check today, 1 week to fledge day and all 3 look well
1 bird is a bit camera shy

Rick

All looks good ! The 3rd egg hatch and all 3 look well.

Rick

I have bee hives about 400 feet away from a martin pole. I also checked into it before I moved the hives, but when I watch the martins come in they almost always have a bee right at tail. I'm amazed how the bees keep right up to the martins turn for turn! Next year I'll have to try to get a good pic...

It will be a fledge date around 8/22/22 if they make it. Looking at my records it will be the same date that a pair had a re nest fledge in 2020. It's a remote site ,but with the last of the nests fledging this week I'll be able to see if they are ASY or SY's parents . I remember checking on the one...

Lowering he houses in Wisconsin today with high winds expected and I find hatching young!

Billie , Not sure what kind of gourds and trap you are using, but you can tape off some of the entrance that a martin cannot fit in. Just keep it open enough that a sparrow can fit. And yea it can be very frustration watching other birds chase away your visiting purple martins. I remember watching h...

Yes, The Conley wire and door shield trap works great on starlings. I have also seen them lift the door shield with their beaks and get out. The porch on the Troyer tunnel has lots of traction groves in them giving the starlings something to push their way in. There are threads on here about putting...

What of gourds do you have and what kind of SREH are you using? When they are checking the place out it looks like they don't fit, same with the blue birds and tree swallows when looking in a round hole. I would also try the round hole and see what happens. Just keep an eye on things, starlings seem...

The weather is not much better here in southeastern Wisconsin. The temps have made it into the 50's today, but the past few weeks have been extremely cold and windy with not much sunshine. Crickets can seem a bit expensive so I would suggest flipping a few and if they are not watching the cricket fl...

In 2009 in did some temp testing in plastic gourds. Nature Line and Troyer Horizontal . I had 4 remote sensors that would show the temp on my home weather station. I set an alarm to sound at 100 degrees and the horizontal gourds alarm went off with an outside temp of 85 degrees. The Nature Line gour...

Give them some time and they will remember . They may be finding enough food for themselves, or just not hungry enough. Even a well trained colony will not always take supplement food . I have made scrambled egg so many times thinking they will eat only to have no takers. One day they are so happy t...

Ice and snow will make it impossible to lower the house in spring. Depending on your location I would place it on it own pole.

In 2016 I put them on a house a friend received from her dad. The house was put in a good location, but she is still waiting for a pair.

Rick