Purple Martin Forum

Glynn B - LA wrote:Bad idea! Glue traps out in the open are very unfriendly to all wildlife. If I were you I would use a predator baffle along with netting.

Glynn

I agree.

It says there are rat snakes in Pennsylvania. Racoons can also climb very well. Those are some of the easier predators to stop. Please use the correct protection. Those are just ground predators, the ones from the air (Owls and Hawks) are the ones i fear the most.

Sounds like you are doing just about everything you need to do to attract them. Are the rooms on your house enlarged to a size like 6"x12"? Do you have any idea how many pairs that colony you mentioned have? If they have a lot of pairs you might get some sooner rather than later.

So your martin house you want to move isn't in a good location?

There are six foot rat snakes in texas and they can get by the cone and smaller cylinder type guards. I put plastic bird netting (they sell is at hardware or garden type stores) above the guard wrapped around the pole in a puffy ball so that the snake has to go through the netting and get caught. Th...

Don't think a snake cant get up that pole and wreak havoc. Get that predator protection on asap.

Ahhh yes that first year getting martins good feelings and nervous ones .Your site looks decent. I have seen worse sites than yours and they had martins.

I'm thinking last year must have been a very good year for martins. This year I only offered 12 rooms thinking I wasn't going to be full and it looks like I have a full house.

From what i have seen the last two seasons when egg laying starts the snakes come... I caught about a 3 1/2 foot rat snake the other morning in some netting wrapped around the pole.

Looks like there is a removable guard for the round poles.

I had a tufted titmouse one year build a next similar to your pic in a horizontal troyer gourd under my martin house

What does this do for my chances of establishing a colony? I was thinking of all the scenarios. Am I hoping that he will hit capacity soon? I assume until then, his colony is far too appealing for me to get any wanderers, right? What if he hit capacity last year and added another house this year. I...

I put up a house in April 2012 and didn't get a pair until 2015. I wonder how much easier it would be to attract martins if all the neglected housing you see wasn't covered with sparrows and starlings but instead covered with martins!

I'm not too far from you and I'm seeing a good number of martins for my site. I have counted up to 12 flying around my house. I first saw a martin here on Feb 21.

What kind of camera were your pictures taken with?

Cant be long. I had some more birds show up and they seem to be already fighting for females and rooms.

Good luck!

Good Read. 9 years is a long time for a wild bird to live if you think about it.

Trio house (enlarged rooms?) and gourds they will love that! Good luck this year!

Hi Jeff, wondering how your season has gone, did you have some nesting pairs? Hi Archer, hope all is well. Guess I missed this post last year so here's an update. I ended up having about 12-14 or so stay with us last year. Two pair nested and we had about 4 young ones to hatch. A friend south of me...

I have power lines about 35 feet from my housing and the lines were covered with martins last season. Like GeneP said keep it simple. Put up recommended housing(I would use a house and gourds), keep unwanted birds out of the housing, keep trees away from the housing and use predator protection.