Purple Martin Forum

Hose Clamp?

I have a gamo whisper pellet rifle that came with a scope but I want to upgrade the scope. I would like some suggestions on what others are using on there pellet guns that will hold zero from the recoil of a springer pellet rifle. I have been looking at the leapers scopes and from the reviews, they...

Hi Annie,
Sorry to hear about your dog.
Glad to hear you have new visitors. I hope they return soon. I guess I better get my housing up in a day or two. I am holding off till I see them flying around out front.
I am hoping to avoid another battle between the martins and tree swallows this year.

Mike

I always cringe when I see pm homes like gourds, over water, at first it looks cool but I feel sorry for the"fall outs" , the young who fall,or get pushed out of their home and drown. That to me is sure loss of yet another future martin! I think the same way for a pier, are these location...

"Repost from a prior thread" Just curious about the housing on the end of a pier. Do the PMs mind the people/activity on the pier in close proximity. I thought about doing that to deter the hawk attacks, but our pier is quite busy in the summer time with boats and people. My pole is 12-14 ...

No nesting pairs but almost! Also had a sub adult male here all summer but he couldn't find a mate. :roll: How did you do? Had approx. 3 pair. Down a little from year before. I had a pair of tree swallows move in about a week ahead of the martins and they were extremely aggressive. They would ride ...

I have a real problem with that much ice. My best housing on Whitewater Lake is on the end of my pier. The pier is going to be on shore for a while yet with that much ice. I do have a T-14 on shore that I can raise. It had several nesting pair in it last year. I had 5 pair in the pier housing. The ...

I hope they don't head into So. Wisconsin for at least a month to 6 weeks. We still have 18-24 inches of ice on Lake Wisconsin, 30 mi. north of Madison. This picture was this morning. Winter is getting to long and to ugly.

I saw my first fledge of the year last Saturday. There were 10-15 extra martins around the gourd rack squawking and buzzing around. A little one wondered out on the porch to see what was happening. Mom flew in next to it and literally started pushing it around and pecking at it try to knock it off t...

Double-crested Cormorant
We have a crap load of them here on Lake Wisconsin. They eat mainly aquatic, small fish and such. But they make a mess in the trees they roost in. First the branches die then the tree after a couple of years of to much DO-DO

Mike

Thanks for the pics. That looks like the one I have patrolling around here. I wish he would move farther back in the woods and leave the martins alone.

Mike

Hi Guys, I have to apologize, The picture is one I pulled off the internet. I mistakenly thought they, the Merlin and Sharp-shinned were one in the same. My Bad! :oops: I not really sure which one it was. The info that I've seen says Merlins are migratory for So. Wisconsin. The raptor I saw was also...

Like the title says. I had swallows get into my gourd rack a day before the martin scouts showed up last week. They were battling over the housing for a few days. Yesterday I didn't see a whole lot of activity, then last night my wife says "look at that bird on the martin house" . BAD news...

Well a pair of swallows beat the scout martin to the dozen gourds I have. They are aggressive little suckers. One of them latched on to the martin and rode him right into the water below, more than once. Sooooo, do I wait for the other Martins to arrive to help the scout drive out the swallows, or d...

Eagles are getting dead fish that come up through the melting ice. Taken with my web cam that I use to watch the martins in the summer.

Mike, That design sure looks nice. I am not sure how long that takes to make, but a plumber's torch will melt the foam and create a nice bowl by moving the torch around. I also used the torch to cut down the front of my nest bowl, and it also creates a rough surface to provide traction for the bird...

I am thinking about switching to a Coates 12 room from my falling apart SK plastic barn. While looking around I see alot of people are using nesting cups. I was a little bored so I thought I would design something up and cut out some 1" blue styrofoam on my hobby cnc machine. Here what I came u...

I thought I had seen voracious feeding before but this is something else. We had our first mayfly hatch on Lake Wisconsin(Southern Wisconsin) and the martins are really gobbling them up. It happens to coincde with the martins hatching out about a week ago. There is plenty on the dinner plate now and...

Thanks Gene - I'll check out the shop. I was just trying to figure out which were the best ones gourds, aluminum, wood, plastic, etc....I think the next one will be gourds since I already have the plastic heath one (not really pleased with it). @M - I haven't been. I actually have a lake house in G...

Can you do it wireless? It can be done as long as the router is in range. Some cameras will reach out about 300 feet but most are 75-100 feet max. Another issue is the problem of power to the camera, you will have to power up the gourd. This is usually low voltage 12-24 v DC. I was going to mount o...