Purple Martin Forum

Fish crows. are the reason I stopped hosting martins. We live on a golf course and have lots of crows. Our gourds were 25 feet from our house. They would wait in a big oak tree on the fairway and wait to see the young heads pop out and then strike. Parents could not protect them. Once the found an e...

could it have possibly have been a Merlin? Very Similar but a bit larger. Saw one here yesterday Might be migrating back north. They would go after my birds I saw one kill

John

Tom, Common Grackles or Boat Tails? we have lots of both and they seem to co-exist with the martins? Now Fish Crows are a different story. This is the first year they started to raid our houses. lost several close to fledge young to them. They watch for fledglings to poke their heads out, our ventur...

Sorry to hear. What a treasure. Remember him from way back. He had some ground breaking martin methods and would always assist anyone with questions

John

A migrating Merlin just got one of our males. I think we've lost at least one more so far. This really stinks cause females are on eggs. Hoping they move on. soon. Haven't seen much of the coopers lately. UGH!

John

Congratulations!

Could it be a female?
I've had a few female first arrivals including this year. I've noted in the past they are not very vocal at all and you really need to be in the right place at the right time to notice them.

Good luck

John

We'll keep them here. probably won't get to far north cause that front is zooming down through Florida tomorrow. Last year a. front stopped many in their tracks. We had our colony plus about 50 other birds here. Many were sitting on the neighbors roof trying to stay warm in the sun. Jones and Mike t...

Just saw a flock of Martins between 150-200 circling and feeding moderately high up as they meandered north It was raining and our colony birds were on the house and gourds. It's stormy here today but winds are still out of the south west. Never seen that before. My guess is they're heading up the e...

A male and a couple of females yesterday. Just like our first arrival (female) 2 to 3 weeks earlier than last year. Nest building is almost complete in most of the cavities and that's early as well. We've had some strong south to southwest winds here on the coast for several days so you landlords up...

Mike Wren, it is I. Started over down here. Have a trendsetter 12 with 4 hanging gourds and a rack with six excluders That was all I could fit on this postage stamp yard All close to the house and pool cage. Luckily we live on a fairway so lots of open space behind us. Got lucky and got martins the ...

I-love this forum.. I lurk a lot. Facebook is too hard to follow and agreed a lot more aggressive tones and opinions and chest thumping. :) BTW we have approx. 20 pairs and nest building began early last week of February hot and heavy. Our first arrival was early as well Jan 2. Pretty sure we have S...

Mike, congratulations!

I was shocked to see our first arrival ,a female, just up the road from you in Cocoa Beach on the second also. The earliest by 2 weeks. Usually, Merritt Island gets em first.

Have a great season!
John

Excellent post Mike!! I'm glad I don't have to deal with those Ohio winters and trying to keep my early arriving martins alive anymore. Unless you've lived up north with a martin colony it's tough to comprehend the emotional roller coaster early spring weather brings us for our martins. Take care my...

Ahhh, Sorry to hear.. Sad when they perish after that long journey home..
Best of luck.

John

Hi Mjfog, I saw a female yesterday casually flying out over the fairway yesterday morning but didn't report because she showed no interest.. Didn't circle or get anywhere near our housing. We're located in Cocoa Beach right across the Banana River from Cocoa which already had a scout report. Ours sh...

Here in Cocoa Beach Florida, we've got 2 nests to fledge out of 19. They should all be gone by early July. Good thing, cause it's Hurricane season!

John

Steve, Thanks for sharing.. Great story! Ed, we had dozen Dove decoys when we lived in Ohio placed in various spots, some on a fence line, a couple in small trees. I picked a known hawk flyway out of our back woods put a few and some out in the open along the fencing. My strategy only worked at best...

Hi Brenda and Mike. Hope you both have spectacular seasons! Thats the one thing I don't miss a about living in Ohio (well there is more than one actually Lol).. The constant worry about the safety and survival of early Martin returns. Nest building has been going on for a few days here in earnest. O...

In Ohio, I had 4 racks clustered together about 15' apart. The Martins loved the closeness and so did the Coopers Hawks.I seriously contemplated spreading them out at least 100' as we had enough property, to possibly give the martins a better chance to escape attacks. It was pretty easy for the hawk...

Hi PM David, Just my opinion nothing else, but I've often wondered the same thing and I came to a non scientific conclusion, The older more established a colony the older the birds are and I believe the oldest birds show up first, so it could be an age establishment situation. Had a previous older e...