Purple Martin Forum

I'm upgrading our colony and have this used 10 year old deluxe gourd rack that I originally bought from the PMCA. It holds 12 vertical gourds and comes with all parts including: rack hub, 12 stainless steel arms with pins, top perch, 2 pulleys, stop bolt, safely clamp, rope, and tie off for rope. I ...

My father is selling his trio castle if anyone is interested. It's located in punta Gorda Florida. It has been modified from 24 to 12 rooms and includes excluder entrances. Also has gourd arms on bottom that hold 4 gourds. If you can pick up in person you can have everything for $250. If I have to s...

I'm going to attach a porch wide board to 2 sides of my t-14 that will eventually block to fronts of those sides. The martins will have to enter into the entry way from the sides and then turn and go into the holes.

I've been raising gouldian finches for years and use a specific kind of nest box like the one pictured. It occurred to me that this might be a good design for martin housing to prevent owls and hawks from being able to see the entrance hole and therefore any martins that might be inside. What are yo...

I posted a few years ago about finding martins in a street light near my house. Well it's been a few years and we moved about 30 miles to the northeast of Orlando. Today I was driving down a very populated street and noticed the same style of streetlights along the road. I had my window down and hea...

Well everyone, I talked to the owner today and he doesn't want to part with the houses. He says he doesn't get martins anymore(tree encroached) but still likes to watch the sparrows nest in them. You can imagine how that made me feel! I tryed to convince him how bad these sparrows are but he didn't ...

I've just located about 12 of these old trio castles at an old farm. They are all over grown with trees. I'm trying to get in touch with the owner to see if he wants to get rid of them. I'd like to see them go to someone who could put them in an ideal location. E-mail me if interested. Thanks!

Mike

I've thought about a new owl guard for some time and think I might have an idea. What if you made a second hole in the back of the gourd to be used as an escape route? If an owl, snake or racoon were to reach into the gourd, the adult martins could bolt out the rear door. Not sure if the martins wou...

This definitely becoming a trend in Florida. I have witnessed this on many occassions in the central florida area. This would be great fo rthe species as there are thousands of these lights throughout the state. I've even witnessed 2 pairs in 2 separate lights next to each other. I wrote up a little...

I just found abunch of trio parts in my shed that I thought someone could use. I have 2 complete floors to a Trio castle/mini castle. I also have abunch of Trio doors(round and SREH, nest trays, and other misc stuff. Send me a private e-mail if interested. Thanks!

Mike

Hey Sam, I feel your pain. We had the exact same thing happen last year. 6 rat snakes got past the PMCA guard that was installed correctly(over 4ft off the ground). They weren't all big either(from 2-6ft). Luckily I had the netting above the guards just in case. One even somehow got around the netti...

Had PMCA baffles correctly mounted on the poles last year with netting above and still had 6 rat snakes get around them and get caught in the netting. One really big one actually made it past the netting too. The snakes climb up the seem of the guard that is screwed together. I've since changed to h...

Hey Robert, I know it might seem like your martins are in for certain death because of these coopers hawks but I wouldn't worry too much. I can only say this because we had the same situation at our previous colony for 5 years. The coopers hawks were nesting in a cypress dome about 100yds from my 2 ...

Thanks for the info. I do have one other question for Emil and John. Will the PVC guard also prevent racoons? Thanks again!

Mike

I witnessed something yesterday that was truly amazing. As I was taking a walk with my son at around 6pm he spotted a big barred owl in an oak tree in our front yard. This was the first time I had seen one up close and boy are they scary looking. Those big sunken eyes and the hugh talons and beak ha...

Well after the year of the Rat snake here in Central Florida, I'm looking for the best device to keep these critters out of the martin houses. we have the PMCA guards mounted at the correct height(4ft) and the snakes go up them like they are not even there. We did add the bird netting and caught 6 s...

Hey Steve, yeah I had the netting about a foot above the guard. I think I may have had it too loose. The netting I have has 3/4 inch squares. It sure isn't fun to see a snake coming down the pole with 2 big lumps in it. Those were probably near fledgling age babies. We just moved out here in the cou...

Hey Steve, could you go over again how you tie the netting to the pole? I have some on mine above a PMCA stove pipe guard and still had a 5ft yellow rat snake get 2 martins. I caught him coming down the pole. The netting has stopped 2 others but somehow this one got through. LMK

Mike

Well its a good thing I took the advise of people here on the forum and put some bird netting above my pole guard. 2 days ago a 3-4ft yellow rat snake was tangled in the netting. We have PMCA pole guards on both of our poles and they are properly installed(4ft above the ground). This is our first ye...

Thanks for all of the ideas. I did try putting mirrors near the house and they peck on those too!! They seem to be attaking just our master bedroom windows, all 5 of them. You should see these things shimmy up behind the birdnetting just to get their rival red belly. I will look into the window film...