Purple Martin Forum

It is still pretty early for returning adult martins in the northern parts of their nesting range. I've had years when there were fewer than 10 adult martins at my well established site until the 1st of May. After that date dozens of new arrivals would show up at my colony each day. Around the 21st...

After 14 mostly good years with my colony, this year is almost a total wash. :cry: Last year I had 56 pairs hatch at least 4 eggs, and all but two young fledged. One of the best, if not the best, seasons I’ve ever had. I put in some work over the winter replacing traction pads and loose pins in my g...

BioJoe, I appreciate your input. I truly believe this is a threat to PM populations. Doubly disheartening to me after several years of 60-70% occupancy to finally see the opportunity to grow my colonies (Two racks in one area and two a couple of hundred yards away, so I think they may be considered ...

Concerns me that this may present a very real threat to the survival of the birds. Fewer landlords means fewer birds, and I suspect there will be a substantial reduction in both over the next several years as existing landlords become unable to continue and new landlords can’t or won’t pay the entry...

I’ve been hosting martins for many years now. I had a few down years, but this past year I had young fledged from every single one of my 62 gourds with only one unhatxhed egg. I was pumped, and ready to add more gourds for next season. But I was stunned to find the cost is now over $32 per gourd, do...

I'm wondering if I've helped them too, by eliminating so many of the HS and starlings. Since I declared all-out, take no prisoners war on house sparrows and starlings, I see a lot of birds I had never even seen anywhere in the wild. Bluebirds, cardinals, blue jays, white crowned sparrows and finche...

I open all my housing and then hope for the HOSP invasion. I trap them with abandon and clean the gourds. Once the males all find a place to nest you won't have nearly the numbers. I also use an Uncle Blaine's trap that I've had for a few years. I'm amazed at the way I've impacted the bird populatio...

Had a cow go into labor last night and a dog apparently got in a fight with something along with a garden that needed protection from frost, so I didn't get to spend as much time watching as I'd have liked. By the time we got the calf pulled, dog to the vet and garden covered, I was worn out. I spot...

Okay then - I wrongly assumed it was house sparrow nest with tunnel. So now consensus is leaning towards flycatchers, but, now that I think about timing - they are migrating through Texas and southern states now. Would they have eggs already in southern Indiana. Could this be a titmouse or chickade...

Those eggs look awfully dark to me. Maybe its just the way the photo was taken and is shadows. Hard to know ID from this. Maybe consider other species too: Flycatcher http://www.sialis.org/nestsgcfl.htm (lots of others to brows through there on sialis) Yes, they are very dark. That was the first th...

Flycatcher is good suggestion, Brenda - and they like furry nest linings, too. John T, is the nest a complete dome with tunnel, or open at the top, like a bowl. Flycatchers are shy, too - could be. I thought HOSP at first but this is still a mystery nest! Open at the top. I didn't disturb anything ...

I'm pretty sure it's not a house sparrow. Though it's hard to quantify, the nest is much more well-built and neat than any house sparrow nest I've seen. Looking through the entrance, I thought it might have been one, but as soon as I opened the lid everything looked different. The cavity itself is c...

I was out of town for work for 10 days, and when I did my first nest check after I got back I found a nest I've never seen. It nearly fills the gourd like a sparrow nest, but the material is a little coarser with an open pocket lined with finer materials and feathers. Sorry the eggs are blurry. I wa...

I'm south of you, but I got my first birds in May of 2011. Because of stormy weather and work I couldn't get my house up until April. I still got birds and they raised babies that year!

A good repeating sparrow trap is your friend.

Suggest we disagree but not laugh at the views of others. It only causes resentment. John Miller I don't know what you mean by laugh, but at some point you have to take a stand against something. Not saying that the point is now, but important to keep misinformation from spreading.. which this is i...

Just wanted to update that this worked very well for me. I just used a very simple notation. The date I saw something followed by a letter indicating what it was. For example, one lid says 5/12N. 5/21 4E 5/26 5E 6/14 5C Translation is I saw a PM nest for the first time on 5/12. Saw 4 eggs on 5/21 an...

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/Catfan96/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_6978_zps9d834a26.jpg Found probably a dozen of these total in 3 or 4 of my gourds when I cleaned. It seems that they were in pairs, as most of them matched with another half she'll in each gourd. No damaged or chipped shells. I tri...

I'm pretty good about writing everything on my calendar, and it paid off by letting me return babies to the right house when they fell out last year, but I'm starting to get enough gourds that it's a little cumbersome. I've considered writing on top of the gourd or on the lid with a wax pencil. That...

Ray, thanks for the suggestion, sure something for me to think about. Makes me ill almost to see martins come every day and the sparrows meet them head on immediately. This is the first year that I have failed to capture sparrows in the wire baited trap. So many martins in my area and frequent visi...

31 eggs in 6 nests yesterday afternoon, with three hatched.

HOSP are fledging, and I caught 14 at once in my Uncle Blaine's trap yesterday, then caught 3 more after I cleaned it out! 24 HOSP in the last two days!