Purple Martin Forum

SEVERAL YEARS AGO I BECAME INTERESTED IN BUILDING NET GUARDS FOR ALL MY SYSTEMS AND I LOOKED AT LOTS OF LITERATURE ON THE FORUM. MAYBE I JUST COULD NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO MAKE ONE WITH NETTING THAT I COULD RAISE AND LOWER WITHOUT A GREAT EFFORT,IF AT ALL. I BOUGHT THE NET MATERIAL.. WE ARE NEST CHECK...

Our Osprey (numerous) have never been a deteraant to the Martins. This year just across our cove...50< yards., we have an Eagles nest. They have ignored the Martins. We have a "lovely" family of "crows" that announce hawks. They are not concerned about Osprey or Eagles! We love o...

Please keep us posted....We are "country" Martin people. My son is an "in town" Houston area backyard bee keeper. Your study is wonderful! Hope to hear from your again!

Best regards,
Tammy Winger

DornCounty...good for you! We have almost no subbies in E. TX. All of our birds seem to be ASY. Maybe "ya'll" are getting our SY birds. Thankfully to good homes!

Wishing you nothing but the best...Tammy Winger

To John Miller & DebA... Thank you for your replies. No issue with nest trays. These birds were in BO-11+ gourds. So I tend to agree with the theory of SY birds. No material restricting the crescent. As soon as we lowered the housing I could see "her". Immediately said to my "Mr.&...

JL--I AGREE THAT THE BO-11 LIDS CAN BE DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH . THIS PROBLEM IS EASILY SOLVED BY APPLYING A THIN LAYER OF BABY OIL TO THE INSIDE OF THE LID OR ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE GOURD. THAT WAY, THE LID WILL SLIDE NICELY UNTIL YOU HEAR A SNAP. DONE.. WHEN OR IF THE NECK BEGINS TO TWIST, IT MEANS ...

Back ground info: We have used round holes successfully since 2010...no HOSP or Starlings. As I have recently posted the Starlings arrived this year so mid season we changed to crescent entrances. On our North Gemini sys in gourd "D" on 05/16 all seemed well. 5 eggs with an expected hatch ...

I/we are not experts like some of the other's that have posted. I just thought I would share with you... We have 48 BO 11+. Last year (2013) we had 4 cavities that fledged between July 7th - July 15 (late for our area). Temps were 92 degrees - 98 degrees (and VERY humid). All of the "babies&quo...

Try re-naming your bird! We are in TX and one of our "single male" best friends lives in Knoxville, TN....His name is Fred! Great guy (trim-fit and nice looking at 75 yrs + doesn't look a day over 63ish or so )but doesn't seem to have great luck with the "ladies" long term. What ...

Chris79...I/We are no experts! Although this is our 5th year as "landlords" we learn something almost daily from this forum. You might consider providing more detail in your "profile". S&K has many different gourds. Example: we use BO 11+ with cooling caps, tunnels, no rocker...

I have thanked TonyG....and I am now thanking Emil and KathyF for your time and advice.

It may sound "silly" but I am honored that the 3 of you who are so respected for your knowledge of Purple Martins took the time to responded to me.

Wishing the best to all! Tammy

We have had great luck in providing pre-nesting material (in our area - pine straw). We cut it up to make a "softer" nesting material. In a few situations the "birds" did remove all of our "material" and start from scratch....Who know's??? I say attempt to give them a r...

Thanks Tony! We (Me & my "Mr." discussed a "Blaine's" today. Although the Bo 11's are great gourds we have learned that "trapping" is not easy!

Truly appreciate your input~Tammy

Background: We live in E. TX on a 114,500 surface acre lake (Lake Sam Rayburn) on 4 acres. Basically sourrounded by national forest. We have been landlords since 2010. Our firsrt year we had 5 pair and currently (as of 2014) have 52 pair. I feel sure we could attract many more birds, but at this sta...

WOW!!! Good for you! In E. TX we have been weeks behind. Last year (2013) our first egg was 04/15/13. This year (2014) 04/25/14 was our first egg.

Wishing your nothing but the best...T. Winger

birdy girl, As a "newbie" (our first year with 5 pair in 2010) you were the first person to respond to our first post. Although I have no plausable answers to your current post I will be following your saga. You will always have a special place in our "learning curve" of Martins....

Gene & Bill,

You make my heart happy!

Wishing you nothing but the best!

Tammy Winger

Thanks Matt-I will PM Sharon to try and learn how they changed the crescent. Heritge Farms is one of the ones offered in the PMCA market place but the specs are not in line with forum thinking..

Joel-I recently switched fromround to crescents..I had one with a mud wall so high and close to the entry that I had to leave it round...next year I will have the SERH on them before nestbuilding and avoid that situation..,cheers

We have just switched from round to crescent doors on all systems except our Heritage Farms Quad Pods which are manufactured with a 1 and 2/16 crescent size. Two questions--Do you think Martins can negotiate that size? Remember that size is 5 percent smaller than 3/16. Question 2 ..Has anyone had ex...