Purple Martin Forum

Additional comment. I change every nest at least twice. Once on day eight after hatching, a second time on day 15. I have kept a journal every year. Historically here, if the nestlings make it to day 12, their chances are good. Most issues with disease or vermin occur around day 8, when the nessling...

Why take a chance if the nests do not dry out? In a confined space with no air movement, the nests will just fester. Blow flies and other vermin will find a perfect environment for development. If you have the question, there is always that your season could go as sour as your nests. If I find even ...

The first question you should ask is how many gourds you can effectively manage. Having an active martin colony is more than numbers of gourds. I began with 12 cavities and eventually had 36 cavities. That was years ago. Over time, after achieving a full house and dealing with the ever present chall...

Sorry for the delayed reply. I replace all nest materials on day 7,14 and 20 even if I do not see evidence of predation. I am trying to break the life cycle of any vermin in the nest. As I remove the nestlings, it is easy to check for any mysterious wounds. A blood spot needs to be explained. Second...

I have hosted a martin colony for over 20 years in Central Wisconsin. Coming from a scientific background, I make frequent observations and keep copious records regarding my colonies ups and downs. I have reduced my colony to 12 commercial gourds and have 100% occupancy every year. I am down from 30...

Good suggestion for anyone with birds in the yard.. With many trees reflecting in the windows of our house, we have birds hitting the windows all year. I have used Save-the-Birds window decals for many years with some success. They are not 100% effective from my experience but they help.The number o...

Billie, It's always something trying to get martins. The only choice you have is to plug the holes, as has been suggested.As you already know, wrens will fill as many cavities as possible. I used to use pieces of swimming noodles. They are available at any Wamart. Cut a donut slice and compress into...

Congratulations on your pair of martins. Since you are inexperienced, I suggest contacting an experienced landlord near you for advice as to how to make sure that this pair is successful in fledging young. Nest checks and nest replacements are an important management tool to assure success. Good luc...

Alfie, As long as the smoke is not blowing directly toward the colony, you will not have any issues. My fire pit is about 150 feet from an active colony. I burned brush last night for about an hour. The martins ignored it and carried on normally. If you are still concerned, burn smaller quantities r...

Mark, Good suggestions regarding crippling crickets and heat packs. Our temps are up and down. 90 degrees Saturday and FROST tonight. Lows in the upper 30s and low 40s. Sun came out today with temp about 55. Swarms of small insects. Highs for the rest of the week in the 50s and lows near freezing to...

Mark, I have been in similar situations here in Wisconsin. If the martins are gone during the day and returning at night, they have been out feeding.I had them survive three days with a high of 42° this spring. They were gone all day and back at dusk every day. 50° is not freezing and insects are ou...

Strong SE winds today brought a big influx of newly arriving martins ,barn swallows and rough wing swallows. Hopefully, those further North will experience the same thing. Mother nature knows best. The noise from all the new arrivals trying to find cavities is nice to hear. Raise a lot of fledglings...

Joy, I'm in south central Wisconsin. I am also slow filling up. My first martin was 10 days later than last year. Others around Wisconsin are seeing a slow spring. I had two ASY show up today with SE winds. Our high temps have been in the 40s. It may be to our( and their) advantage if they are late....

Keep your eyes on your resident martins. There are two here in Wisconsin using auxilary colored red bands in addition to federal bands. We coordinated the numbers on the red bands to prevent the same numbers being used. I just observed a red banded ASY male here at my small colony with my binoculars...

Just curious, how often do you do nest replacements?

Ed

Martins continue to amaze me with their resilience. With lows in the 20s and 19° overnight last night, my martins have survived and are just now leaving for the day. They are out feeding all day over the past three days only to return just before dark. We are rural and I have observed early martins ...

Go to the PMCA main page. Under Education, find Download. Under Download, find TreeSwallow Emergency. Tree swallows are not your friend if you are trying to attract martins and a poor substitute for martins. If they claim your site, they will aggressively drive off investigating martins. Follow the ...

Bill, I documented one such occurence in 2017, as you may have read in the earlier Forum post. I nest check religiously. Plenty of nest checks and nest replacements made it possible to verify that two full nesting cycles occurred. From the first egg in the first nest to the fledging of the young on ...

I have only had one experience with a second nest by the same pair of martins. In 2017, I had an ASY pair lay their first egg on May 18 and fledge 3 nestlings on schedule on July 5th. On July 17, with fledglings still appearing at this nest and after wondering why this adult pair was still active in...

I have both entrances and have never had a starling breach. Starlings try both early in the season, give up and never bother all season. I think that the Modified Excluder would be more difficult for even a smaller starling to enter based on their larger sternum. Others will chime in. All are occupi...