Purple Martin Forum

I had about 10 martins in and around my set up, then I saw a Red-Sholder hawk sitting on my aluminum house. The hawk was just hunting, unsuccessfully, because no martins were around, and I scared it off. I'm not sure if the martins weren't there because of the hawk, or those martins I saw were just ...

IMpressive. How do you think that will hold up in strong winds? I had my aluminum house bent over six years ago with some impressive straight line winds.

I saw my first scouts yesterday. I have my aluminum house up but I've delayed putting up my gourd racks till I saw the scouts. With those who have a pulley system for your gourds, how often do you replace the ropes?

I live just north of San Antonio,TX. The past week or so I did not see any PM activity and was thinking about taking down. Today I noticed several PM's had returned, so I guess the house/gourds will remain up for a while.

Primarily for the central/south-central Texas area. Had a good year, Im going to need additional gourds next year. Question; my nests are primarily fallen oak leaves, have any of you pre-loaded your apartments with these leaves, like some have pre-loaded straw?

Cool beans! Thanks again, I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for the reply. FWIW, all these compartments have eggs/hatchlings. Thats why I was puzzled.

I've dusted my nests already, but I noticed one of my birds acting like she might have some mites. Has anyone dusted with new borns in the nest? The eggs are starting to hatch.

I have one 12 compartment house, modified to six apartments, and an eight gourd pole. On my last nest check, I counted four nests in my house and seven of eight gourds with eggs/hatchlings. The most birds I've counted is 14. I am not discounting the possibility of a counting error, but with 11 popul...

Thanks again for all the replies. Great idea about building up the base. Lord knows I have enough rock around here to do that with. LOL

Six excluder gourds. Thanks for all the replies. Im going to try to go a little deeper.

Concrete. Wider is possible but Im still drilling through rock. Im thinking maybe another six inches. Filling this, essentially rock bowl , with concrete and I dont think the pole is going anywhere.

Just saw first scouts yesterday and I'm trying to put up my new pole (third one). I'm a foot and a half deep and I've been jackhammering through solid rock for about a foot. Any others with rocky soil have any suggestions on how much further I need to go?

I saw my first scouts this morning! Hooray.

Thanks Tom.

I had a good year and got all my birds hatched and fledged before brutal heat showed up. What is a good time to bring down my houses to clean and get ready for next spring?

Perfect! Thanks Rob!

I have a 12 apartment aluminum house and read here about someone doing a remod from 12 to 6. Can anyone direct me to information that I can use to make that happen?

Im starting to see the martins building nests. When would be a good time to treat for mites, and is there any other product that works other than Severin?

I am seeing some scouts and some prospective gourd owners about 30 miles north of San Antonio. I had one nest out of 8 gourds and nothing in my aluminum apartments last year. Im hoping for a few more nests this year.