Let me introduce myself

[Chris Brown]

I’m new to the forum and an amateur / beginner to purple matins. My history with martins goes like this back in junior high I built and installed an old style fixed pole house with 6” x 6” compartments. Martins checked it out several times including some asy males. It was infested with sparrows so none of them stayed. That was 20+ years ago. Now I am armed with more information from this site and from Bob Buskas’s web site.
I am at the extreme north and west edge of the eastern purple martin’s range so I have an ambitious plan. I am building four North Star houses and have twelve west coast style houses ready to be put up. I’m going to put them up in eight locations. The North Stars I have a county park and some private locations for them were I will be able to manage sparrows. For the west coast style houses I’m going to put them up in very open locations away from buildings the same as I do for my tree swallow houses.
My wife thinks I’m a little crazy with my war on sparrows I trap them year round and am always looking to secure good locations for my traps.
Well hears hoping.
Good luck and good management to everyone for 2014.

[Dave Reynolds]

Chris-- Welcome to the forum.. Ask any questions here, there are a lot of good people here, with lots of good information to share.. I wish you good luck in attracting your first pair..

Dave --in Little Hocking, Ohio

[Ed Pace]

Glad to have you aboard Chris. Sounds like your already in tune with the Forum and purple martins. Your aggressive and that is good, being that far north you will need to work at it a little harder. You have some top men up there with Bob and others. Good luck to you and the rest of our nothern neighbors this year. Ed

[DornCounty]

welcome!

[Patrick W. Dusek]

Sounds great, Chris keep on top of those sparrows welcome.

Later, Patrick in Sugar Land Tx.

[barry resvick]

Hey Chris!

Bob has been an excellent mentor to me and is very sharing with his knowledge.The key is not to get discouraged.I had my first chicks last year,four years after i put up my first house but have never given up.You will probably have some visitors hanging around the first year as i did,but i didn't start having any real success until one of my bachelors came back the second year in full colour.That seemed to be when mine started to take off.The females tend to hang around the older males.

[Glynn B - LA]

Welcome to the forum. I wish you luck trying to start a colony. Speaking of Bob Buskas. If I can ever establish a colony for myself, I want to build some of the Buskas chalet's. I just like the look of them.

Hey!! What's a west coast style house?


Glynn

[Peggy Riley]

Hello and welcome!!

Peggy

[barry resvick]

Basically west coast houses are singular units very much like Bobs chalets

[Dave Duit]

Hi Chris,
Welcome to the forum. As an added insight into Canada unique aspect of weather and martins you may want to check out the Ontario Purple Martin Association at http://essexpurplemartins.ca/
I know Alberta is a long way from Ontario, but it may add some added insights. The PMCA has such great people and this is an super site to assist in all your martin concerns and questions. Best of luck with the martins and starting a big colony.

[MamaBruff]

Welcome Chris! And best wishes for 2014. You will love all the information available here at PMCA, and the friendly support by fellow forum members. PMCA and the forum made the difference between success and failure for me! You are not crazy for keeping after the House Sparrows (HOSP). You may already know and have seen pics of what a HOSP can do to a nest of native cavity nesting birds, killing all nestlings and adults. It is gruesome and heartwrenching, and I hope you do not have to experience it firsthand. (that should convince your wife that HOSP are MORE than little brown nuisance birds) In the meantime keep up the good work! You are the official "Minister of Defense"!

[Chris Brown]

On the west coast they are fighting an up hill battle and do things a little different then we do in the east. They build single unit houses and hang them in groups of three to twelve. They hang them on of shore or over water to try to keep starlings at bay. Bob's bungalows are prety much the same thing. I have build mine fairly quick and dirty with crescent openings. I'm just hopeing to increase my odds of getting a pair any place then will build it into a colony. Then another and another untill I eventually get one at my house in Sexsmith. I have a location at Bear Lake with 36 tree swallow houses that has a completely unlimited food supply. The fish flies or may flies I'm realy not shure what they are. Any way by June they are so thick they get in you eyes mouth ears not realy pleasant when performing nest checks. I'm sure the swallows just fly around with there mouths open. Any way the lady that runs the park loves birds so I can put up as mainy houses as I want at that location. So far I have just paired two tree swallow and blue bird houses at that location in the spring I will put tbe ground socket in and once the tree swallows lay an egg my North Star can go up. As for the west coast houses they are going up in groups of threeon existing poles in locations that Martin sightings are reported.

[DebA]

Welcome aboard Chris! Good luck to you!!
Deb

[Robert Richerson]

Sorry to hear about you and Rihanna.

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Welcome to the forum Chris, best wishes for the season.

[Glynn B - LA]

[quote="Robert Richerson"]Sorry to hear about you and Rihanna. [/quote]