Purple Martin Forum

A good friend of mine texted me just now. He found a dead PM at his house. Extremely early for his established colony. Not sure why it was so far north so early. We both live in SW Indiana, very close to Owensboro, KY.

I have the same thing going on here. I keep an old aluminum, octagon house up so when a hosp lands on it, I can shoot it without worrying if I hit it. I have lots a vacant super gourds available. Yet I alway have a few pair of martins that insist on building nests in that old octagon house. I guess ...

John, Those were my exact thoughts. I installed several porches this year as my old aluminum porches were blowing off with the wind. On the 4 gourds I used the Excluder Owl Guards, I installed where the factory indents where, otherwise I would have had to bend or alter the guards. The remaining 12 o...

This year I decided to start installing owl guards after I lost a few martins last year to a pair of Screech Owls. (Also, a buddy of mine lost his entire colony to some sort of owl.) I bought 4 Excluder Owl Guards and 6 Gourd Rack Owl Guards installed them plastic gourds, some with crescent holes an...

I was outside this afternoon messing around and noticed a large flock of starlings foraging in the field surrounding our house. We have lots of a trees with a row of pine trees on the west side. When I walked towards the west edge of the yard, the starlings all flew at once in one big whoosh. Immedi...

Mitch, It took me maybe 2 or 3 years after we bought our house to get my first pair. I put up 2 poles right next to the field behind our house. The field is 40 acres and is either planted in corn or soybeans. After a couple years of no success, I moved the poles about 4 or 5 feet farther away from t...

I submitted my experience with a Screech Owl last summer.

Hi All, New to posting on the forum but have been reading forum posts for years. I just added (2) 3/4" PVC vents to each of my original 12 Super Gourds and 4 new Excluder gourds I just bought. I will lay a small bead of silicone caulk around the elbows, but seriously doubt they need it since it...