Purple Martin Forum

Thanks for the return post. I thought I had read on here many years ago that martins did not always return to their previous locations.

Last season I had 16 nesting pairs out of 24 gourds. In June I noticed a 5" cover on the ground which I thought odd because the new gourds have screw on caps. I went out there and this gourd had some young ones in it, no more, this happened again and I could see two 1/2" conduit poles that...

I haven't responded in about a week, my computer modem went bad and lost my WiFi . I replaced the other bent outrigger pole that the raccoons had bent and while the gourds were down did a nest check. Two nest checks ago I had 45 eggs and a week later re-checked and lost eggs but there was no damage ...

They are made out of plastic for keeping birds off window sills, etc. They are 4" long. I had ordered different ones but I wouldn't get them for a few days and I couldn't wait so I went to my neighbor's house and asked if he had a pneumatic air nailer that takes at least 2" nails, I told h...

Thanks to all that responded. Since I put the raccoon guard up three days ago thankfully it is working and the martins seem happy. I will have to replace the one pole for gourds 22, 23 and 24. You van see how it is bent from the weight of the raccoon and had to replace the pole beneath that one beca...

Thanks for the reply Phil. My gourd rack is a homemade one that originally had a wooden 14 house set-up, Martins would look buy not go in, starlings took over and this happened for 3 years. Finally went to gourds and started getting nesting Martins. The winch is about 12" off the ground, so usi...

Before the Martins arrived I bought 12 Excluder gourds and put them together and hung them along with my other gourds that had the crescent shaped openings. The replaced ones had just the round hole and I was tired of starlings using them. Martins started to arrive and looked in the Excluded but wen...

Thanks, I followed the instructions that came with the Extruder gourds. Hopefully, when more come they will use them.

My first arrival was April 7 one male then another, a few days later another male, and then a female. As of today April 26, I have seen at my gourds 6 birds. I have 24 gourds of which 12 are new replacement gourds with the Extruder II openings. I see some of the martins looking into them but not goi...

Thanks to all that replied. I did change to SREH on the gourds facing away from my view point in the house. Today it seemed I had more martins arrive and by the looks of things all 24 gourds might be filled before any sub adults arrive early next month. The ones here now definitely like the round ho...

I am having a dilemma, this year I have noticed a pair of starlings getting into one gourd that is facing away from my looking point, so I changed all the gourds facing away from me to SREH openings. This is the first year that I have used them. I had bought 12 SREH openings and 12 porches so I deci...

Sharon in reading your history of trying to attract martins, if you are using other types of housing and not gourds might be your problem. Here where I am in Eastern Pa., I had a 14 room Troyer (sp) type house that I built. For 10 years martins would look into the openings but never nest. Starlings ...

Today, August 16 the last of my martins are gone :-( . I had three late nesting pair with 11 young. The last gourd to fledge was August 8th, they all hung around, would leave in the morning, hunt and then come back in the evening. I would see some of them in trees out front and on the power line wir...

I still have 3 gourds with a total of 11 young that should fledge in a few days. These gourds were earlier occupied with starlings. I just kept destroying their nests. After a while I could not even open the door to try and shoot them without them flying away. Finally the left and nests were built b...

May 14th last year I had my first egg. As of May 20th no eggs yet, plenty of nests. Right now I have 22 of 24 gourds with nests. The other two had starlings which I destroyed both eggs and nests. The one has been empty and no martins are using as of yet. Hope that some SY's will use it. I only have ...

Sharon, I do hope that this year is your year. Glad to hear that you got a starling, and sorry about your finger. Last year I had no problems with starlings going into the gourds. This year I have a pair that when I open the door to rest the pellet rifle on the frame for support they fly away and no...

Toy, rained some during the night and again this morning, but now the sun is in and out. Temperature in the low 50's, and there is a lot of activity around the gourds. Looks like more have arrived, but hard to tell. I will have to go out there and when they fly out I should be able to get an idea of...

I had 3 PM's arrive March 23. It had been warmer here and I imagine in the South because this is very early for here. The last two years I had them come April 1st. I believe it was March 27 that it reached the mid 70's, and I knew it was too good to be true as the extended forecast predicted colder ...

Here in eastern PA. I had 3 martins arrive March 23, I was hoping not because of the extended fore cast. One day it was 72 deg. and I was out there with just a tee shirt on. Saturday was very windy with gusts up to 40-50 mph, Sunday by 2 pm wind had died but was cold. This morning rain, and cold, su...

This is the first time on with the new site, very nice. Just getting ready to send in my report. Had a good year for me. Put up 12 more gourds giving me a total of 24. Had 21 gourds used, with 102 eggs. Bad weather during incubation and had 85 hatch and 78 fledge. Lost 3 fledglings out of 4 when the...