Purple Martin Forum

Thanks for the education . It will be interesting to see where the roost ends up. I know exactly the area you are talking about.

Help please. How do you read the radar? Which are the birds?

Today watching out the window I watched a nestling, due to fledge any day, hanging its head and part of its body out the entrance of its gourd. Suddenly an adult PM flew to it, grabbed it with its feet (like a hawk does) and flew off dangling the fledgling. I tried to see if it dropped it, or if the...

I recently had a clutch of 10. I have no idea if the eggs were from one bird or more. The eggs did not hatch and the next check there were four more eggs on top of the ten! When they did hatch it was four young. Apparently the original eggs were not viable . I’m with you though. I’d like to know whe...

LisaJ,
Shouldn’t be long now especially with the warmer temperatures predicted. We are ready as well. I can’t wait with the exception of a hawk that has been crossing our property several times a day. I swear I think they know when it’s time for the martins to return .
Good luck this season.
Sharon

This is a very interesting article about Purple Martins that nest in trees on the west coast and the issues they now face due to elimination of their nesting sites..

https://www.independent.com/2023/09/14/ ... alls-park/

Here is a link to the live PMCA cam in PA. The babies are now 13 days old with eyes open. Maybe you can get an idea by comparing your baby with these.

How is he doing in the TX heat?

https://www.youtube.com/live/8QODLLwtKME?feature=share

Andy, That is very disturbing. Have there been fireworks around the area, not necessarily right at the roost? Just wondering if they could have been frightened to death. Are there any injuries noted on them? Our birds have all left and most likely are at the roost. I hate to hear about the losses. S...

John,
Thank you for posting this. So interesting and informative. I really enjoyed reading about our beautiful birds although I too am saddened to hear they are declining .

That exact same thing happened to us last year. One nest check had five babies and a few days later only one. We never could determine the reason unless a subadult was the cause. We didn’t have a house sparrow or starling problem and had adequate snake proofing. The remaining chick grew healthy and ...

Hello Martin lover friends, We did our last nest check today praying there were no dead birds since they all fledged over the last few days. The heat has been brutal and we are fortunate the majority made it. It is forecast to be around 105 deg. most of this next week with heat index much higher. Wh...

Mike, We had a lot of hawk attacks last year as well and when the martins didn’t show up on my timeline this year I was concerned they might have abandoned the colony. However they did show up and added to their numbers daily. Now we have a full house but unfortunately the attacks have already start...

You can check the Scout Arrival page on this website to see exactly where martins have been sighted and the dates. I’m in Georgetown and expect to see them soon. My first sighting last year was Feb. 19 but I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or more earlier this year based on the reports so far.

There has been a report in Austin at Hornsby Bend.

[Mr. Barrow = Legend]

DITTO!!!

Tom, I imagine they start leaving the roost sometime around the first week in August but that’s a guess on my part based on when they hold the parties. One year we went to the last one and were told the majority had left even though to our eyes there.were still thousands. I received this in the mail...

Tom, We’ve visited the Austin roost a few times. Truly amazing! Maybe some of the Austin birds stopped over in CC on their way to So. America. So glad you have the privilege of seeing the thousands of martins in one place for the last time this season. It is a site to behold. Each year Travis Audubo...

If I understood correctly there was a bird with a yellow beak inside the entrance? If so probably a starling. You might want to check on those babies. They have dark beaks like the parents. I don’t remember reading what kind of pole you have but in my experience, even at 20 days, once you begin lowe...

TXMatt, Georgetown has been hit hard as well. I don’t know if the weather has been as hot as Buda but we are definitely experiencing a drought. We have had several 100 deg. plus days since May. We lost a lot of babies this season due to the heat. BTW what did you eventually do with all the babies yo...

Yes it has definitely been a challenging year. Congratulations on the successful fledges and heartfelt understanding on the losses. Yesterday one of our two remaining nests fledged. There were three young and several times we had to return them to the nest due to jumping out and once I’m pretty cert...