This Article Misses Almost Everything

[GeneP]

Searching for some information I came across this article on Purple Martins.

http://valerie-modreski.suite101.com/pu ... em-a249547

I think she misses on just about every fact of Purple Martins and landlording. She references Birds and Blooms. I stopped subscribing to that magazine several years ago because it gave poor information on Martins. The magazine doesn't seem to have qualified individuals to check the articles for accuracy.

The half page on Martins that I read said that the Tree Swallows come to nest in the houses and are done when the Martins arrive. I think it also said that housing needed to be placed by water.

While they have nice photography their articles are not as factual as they should be. Many people assume these magazines to be an authoritative reference.

What do you think?

[NancyinEnidOK]

Gene, good grief, where to start? So much information, so little of it factual. This strikes me as a situation with a person (the author) who knows just enough to make them dangerous. I had to laugh, though, at the end, the "how-to" list for attracting Purple Martins -- first item listed was a male pheromone spray ("she will love it"). I thought about my lonely little ASY boy who's been singing his heart out, bringing girls over, spending nights here, so far to no avail. Maybe I need to help him. Think if I got some of that pheromone and sprayed it on the housing and all over my front yard, it would work???

[M.Stephens]

Everything they said except "keeping them as far away from any commotion as possible" and foxes etc. as being part of martin predators sounds pretty normal to me. Unless I missed something else.

How is a fox going to get the martins unless they are on the ground. I've never heard of a fox getting martins.

I think the commotion may mean if you were starting a colony. On an already established colony commotion shouldn't deter the martins IMO.

[MDavis]

Well if I read it right it says,
They need to be away from commotion which I proved this wrong by starting
a colony about 150 ft away from a railway. The colony is in my yard next to my house on a city lot, the train goes by about 20 times a day and there's a crossing about 200 yards from my house. So you can imagine the noise (commotion) coming from the loud horn and from the tracks as they go by.

Granted if you didn't have the commotion it may help with starting out but I also would have to say I don't think it hinderd my efforts in starting my colony. That was more on the tree swallows.

[M.Stephens]

WAIT A MINUTE!!!!! Forget anything I said in my last reply....They don't know anything they want you to raise HOSP!!!!!

Read this:
http://catherine-kaufell.suite101.com/s ... en-a201257

[lcline85]

Wow...haha this ironically enough made me laugh. I just can't believe the lack of research that has gone into these articles. Its sad really. The sparrow one makes me crazy, because its not just ignorance, it is blatantly encouraging and teaching others practices that are detrimental to wildlife.

[GeneP]

Let me say, websites like Suite 101 were built to make money from Google Adsense. 1000's of articles written on every subject possible to get readers to click on an ad. For the most part, Google knocked these types of sites down in the rankings. Unfortunately, these types of sites are still out there and still come up when searching.

[Louise Chambers]

Here's something a little better, to take the bad taste from those away....

http://www.kcchronicle.com/2012/04/20/o ... lj/?page=1

[Matt F.]

Great article Louise!
You're right, we needed that......

[Louise Chambers]

John Miller is the man behind a LOT of the good, informative articles in newspapers. He not only does an outstanding job of establishing and managing many public sites, he helps others all over the country learn about martins too. Thank you, John.

[GeneP]

My point was what comes up in search results when looking for information. Some of these websites look like authoritative sites and the average internet user doesn't know the difference.

I once corrected someone about the whole mosquito thing. He sent a link to the first website that came up saying the martins eat lots of mosquitoes. It was a birdhouse sales site. Fortunately he believed me but asked, how do you know who to trust.

While I can give this website out and others I know to be factual, they are not always the first to show in a search engine.

Like I said, I found the article while searching for an answer I didn't find on this or other trusted sites. It's just sad that misinformation is so easily available. And, Birds and Blooms was a resource the author used. It's not that they want to misinform, it just happens.

[Louise Chambers]

You are right, Gene - there is perhaps more bad info than good out there, and new folks will not know which is which.