Purple Martin Forum

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...

My season ended August 12th also. There were 3-4 PM's on the rack at sunset and by this morning nothing. I don't know if they were mine as I haven't seen any since Monday when 14 showed up in the rain. Haven't heard any last evening at all. It was a good season for me.

Great photography, and with that comes great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. Looks like a great season for you.

Sharon, I predict next year will be your year. You seem to have everything that martins are looking for plus you would make a great landlord.
Keep thinking positive and good luck.

Bob, you did do great, congratulations.

Thanks BW. Last nest check I had the 4 eggs in the re-nest have hatched. My calculating hatch date was off, but at least they hatched and everyone one looked healthy. Most of the others with young have gone although the other day I was given a show of around 40 birds being very vocal on the pole and...

I increased my gourds from 12 last year to 24 this year. As of yesterday I had 21 gourds and had not done a nest check for close to 2 weeks because of rains and I knew quite a few gourds were ready to fledge. When I did do the nest checks, Most had fledged and I could hear and see martins in some of...