Purple Martin Forum

John, Please lower your gourd rack to clean/destroy English sparrow nests as needed. Also any starling that are attracted to your colony. LEAVING THEM CO-HABIT with your martins is a sure disaster! Both foreign species will roll out martin eggs and/or peck holes in the martin eggs or babies and thus...

Even with this years late spring arrival, my colony has departed for the year. Just starting a major heat wave here in Missouri , maybe they are trying to beat that. Not a bad year overall with the chilly and very wet spring.

You have correctly answered your own question --- a second brood of a female occurs after some disaster of her 1st. Male PM's may be the mate to several female broods, especially when a number of females are available. Good luck with your martins.

As a colony enlarges and matures, most PM's will be returning ASY's with most of the prior fledglings (now SY's) going out to form new colonies or sneaking into another mature colony. I believe this is nature's way of spreading out the gene-pool and also allowing formation of new PM colonies. This i...

Nice housing racks and a beautiful open site. Wish I has that much open area instead of such good looks!

Some landlords due put in nesting materials (dried grass/straw/string, etc.) into their sparrow traps. I find bread scraps much more effective. Most lawns contain natural/abundant bird building materials anyway, so why would house sparrows or English starlings enter a scary trap for what is already ...

John,
My PM's and I feel your pain! Warmer and more normal weather are more welcome than ever. Keep smiling.

Chickadee, I put up (4) Troyer gourds on my boat dock on a Mo. lake some years back.. I was at 1st unhappy that only some of the abundant green tree swallows took residence. I have since learned to admire these little beautiful swallows as much as my PM colony at a different location. They truly are...

Mary, Perfect timing of your post--- I was in the Joplin area this past week-end watching my grandson pitch at Southern Mo. State Univ. I commented to my family while touring the Joplin area as to the lack of PM's in the area.(I always look for colonies as I travel) My colony is in Arnold, Mo. and i...

Peter,
Nice set-up. I wish I had your open space, but, I still am lucky to have a martin colony. Good luck!

Nichole,
Nice set-up and pics. Also had a few new ASY's today, but still PM numbers a bit down due to all the cold spring weather. Good luck!

Thanks Louise and John for your input. I too hope for a later martin influx, but, this spring's weather has been a rough one on bird migration. Good luck!

Louise, My mid US colony (St. Louis, Mo. area) is low in PM numbers to date. I watched the 1st (3) month's weather of the PM migration in the south, get hit with numerous snow/ice storms along with freezing temps. My experience with both birds and animals is that they migrate and breed based on thei...

I noticed one of the latest arrivals this evening had a silver band on her right leg and possibly another silver band on her left. I was using only 12 X 50 binoculars. If she stays, I will get out my shooting scope and try to ID more information. Might be from John Miller's Forest Park PM's.

Steve
Again, beautiful site and P/M colony. Makes my 40-45 pr. colony look very little. Keep them coming, the rest of us need increased supplies.

Flying Lowe,
If you were moving to Missouri, I have a 3Br/3BH house W pool, F/P, finshed bst & wet bar that I will GIVE AWay!. The 40-50 annual PM colony would cost you 150K though.

Beautiful setup Kathy ---good luck this year. Bob Rogers

Nest building has started --- about (1) month earlier then normal. What weather! Happy PM year all.

Craig, Nest building has been strong at my site (Arnold, MO.) for several weeks now. Several PM's here too, are starting with the green leaves as well, but not in real earnest yet. SY's started showing up today and what a noisy bunch! Sorry about your neighbor and the poop! Seems like we try to buil...

James, I have spent a little time in Florida and several other sourthern states. I naturally sought out PM colonies as the south has some of the biggest colonies going. I noted that southern colonies use a high percentage of natural gourds and with good success. I believe some natural gourds and som...