Purple Martin Forum

I remember reading years ago that many species of insects fly at these high altitudes… I don’t remember the reason or maybe there was only a theoretical explanation. I often wonder if these bugs fly high for some sort of communication reason. Who knows ? But the martins definitely have it figured ou...

Total eggs laid: 86 in 14 compartments
18 new hatchlings.
68 eggs remain unhatched.
All of the hatchlings are 1 day maybe 2 days old.

The most eggs I’ve had yet. Three with 7 eggs

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/wILHqA2JLcU?ra=m

Things are moving a little ahead of the norm this year …. out of 18 cavities I have 11 built nests. 4 eggs total in 3 nests. And signs of nest building in 3 additional cavities. Lots of activity here. I was able to snuff out a pair of HS in a bo9. They were nest building. Within 2 days a pair of PMs...

I have a few SYs here… loud and feisty. Lots of fighting this morning. All good I suppose. I have about 8 more vacancies

South La here. I should be seeing them soon. By mid April definitely. Sometimes I hear them first because I will be sitting peacefully in my living room and will hear horrendous fighting going on in the backyard. When I peek back there to see what’s going on I’ll then see a little trouble making SY ...

If there are other PM houses around the old location, and the martins are active at those locations, I’d take everything to the new place. The martins will quickly readjust and settle into the neighboring houses. When I moved from Slidell to Broussard , same thing happened with me. My old colony (3 ...

Won’t be a problem. Only one pole is different. You have a very established colony… they’ll have no problems readjusting—

Lookin good

For me it was a few days earlier than last year. Early February … two or three of my friends had tje same experience… a bit earlier. But for the most part .. not much different than last year. To the people with nothing yet— Have you even heard or spotted any somewhere in the vicinity? Some people o...

Good news! Ms Leofsky at PMCA sent me an excellent PPT and mailed handouts for me to give out to the crowd. I was able to review the PowerPoint slides and get myself acquainted with the information.

Thanks PMCA!

seth❤️birds wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 16, 2026 11:19 am

Calling the PMCA would be a pretty good idea I think

Yeah.. I will do that today. And I found some really good pdfs online that I could use .. take screenshots and drop into my own ppt.

Hey David. That is awesome. I have 2 houses filled with martins and little Bluebirds have a nest. She laid her first egg today. I am concerned because of so many house sparrows. I have 2 traps but not catching any. I’ve chased them from the martin houses and a couple of times from the Bluebird’s ne...

Dave Reynolds wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 14, 2026 9:17 am

.... dsonyay ... That's great new... Hope you and all your neighbors have many Martins this year.. Enjoy

Dave

Thanks… best wishes to you as well

The Broussard area is chock full of Purple Martins… not only at my home but all over the local area and Parish. No matter where I go around the area I hear and see them everywhere… it just seems to be a lot more here than normal. I’ve got about 20 total coming into the gourds at evening alright now....

I am very lucky to have no HS yet. My neighbor seems to have stopped feeding birds, and they may have moved on to another spot.

On the 26th I’ve been asked to give a 20-30 minute presentation on Purple Martins. Does anyone here have a PowerPoint, or some sort of open source type presentation (LibreOffice, GoogleDocs, etc)?? I could really use a little help. I could make it myself but I know someone here has likely done one t...

Thomas Maddox wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 08, 2026 3:21 pm

Awesome! Did you lose PMs last year with the freezes?

No.. I didn’t have any yet (the really bug freeze was in January)…. My arrivals are usually in Feb

Two male ASYs were spotted this morning around 1030. Very vocal… chirping away. Swooping around the gourd racks, and circling high around the local area..: perching on the powerlines behind the house.. beautiful sight. One keeps landing on the Chirpynest box.. peeking inside.. returns often and repe...

Very good Linda! You did a great job! I was happy with my year as well. Had many fledge and I these will make it across the sea to their winter hangout. Maybe one of these will end up at your site.

Aww man.. what a happy ending. And quite a relief. Good job.

Good to know. Glad to see you had a great year with the martins.