Purple Martin Forum

Mine are late too. Last year first sighting 2/11/15.

Thank you, Louise. The last time I visited the roost there a couple years ago it was on the Starbucks side of 1960 across from the mall. The Audubon gives a good description of location at Stafford but no specifics at Willowbrook. I"ll contact them to see exactly where they set up. Taking my 87...

Does anyone know if the Willowbrook Roost is active this year and if so the exact location?

Anthony and Don, I appreciate your input and observations. Thanks for sharing.

Wow! Emil, you are a real inspiration to clean my houses early this year (always end up doing it when it's cold in January at the last minute). Is it unusual for you to still have babies mid July? I was saddened to discover two martin houses down the street were gone after the owners sold their prop...

Thanks Emil. It was fun watching them until recently landing on their gourds still claiming their homes during the day even though they didn't appear to over night in them but I haven't observed this in the last week and the sparrows were moving in, so had to stop it. Do you know if they are roostin...

This morning I closed the martin houses to prevent the sparrows from building nests, and afterwards had 20 martins visiting my site on the power lines. Should I keep the houses open until they leave the area? The martins all fledged 3 plus weeks ago and no longer appear to be staying in the gourds/h...

I mounted my Radio Shack power horn about 10 plus feet away from my poles, on the top of a 6 foot fence. Plenty close enough to draw the Martins to my site which isn't as open as the martins might prefer, but is becoming more popular each year (3rd season). Barely had to play the dawn song this spri...

Regarding the single egg, this year I had 3 nesting pairs, up from 1 pair last spring, and I had two females (an ASY and a SY) lay their first egg in their permanent nest for the season, then lay a second egg in another compartment. When I confirmed where the next egg was laid, I moved the single eg...

Emil, sure wish someone in the area could find the exact location of this roost near Angleton. Ill be staying at a beach house near San Luis Pass in a couple weeks with my grandkids and it would be wonderful to offer them the experience of a purple martin roost at sunset.

Thanks for everyone's post on this subject. I'm in Houston and lowered my barn house on the S&K quad telescoping pole yesterday because of the high winds and hoped my first pair that recently moved into it weren't freaked out when they got home last night.

Thanks Emil and Carlton. I have the new vertical Troyers with Conley entrances that come with them.

Has anyone modified Troyer porches raising them? Mine are a little over 1/4 each from entrance, except for section that dips down in the center which is to 1/8 of an inch (about 3/4 inch wide).

Well, I just observed 2 full size starlings entering my gourds! Just put the traps back on them, but am courting a male purple martin who's been investing my new site this week and don't want to trap him or discourage him for coming back. Makes me want to stop playing the martin chatter, but gosh, I...

A special thank you to each and every one of you for your suggestions, experiences and sincere welcoming. Your points are well taken and I will continue to consider them as time goes by. For now my place to start is by trapping and releasing the sparrows, marking them with red nail polish to see if ...

Greetings All! Following hurricane Ike's devastation to the Gulf Coast a year ago September, my forested backyard opened up a bit, and I put up an S&K barn house last February. I was thrilled in May or June to have a handsome SYM fairly regularly visit the house, usually from nearby wires, singi...