Any bets on the first arrival southern tip of Texas or Florida ?

Dave Duit · Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:23 pm

I know it is almost insane to start thinking that it is only about six weeks until our martins hit the southern tips of Florida and Texas. If you are like me, I live and breath everything that is purple martin year round. To me there is no season for martins, because when they leave in late summer, I continue with repairs and plans to improve for their return. I've got the purple fever, OCD of martins, the itch for their arrival, the crazy martin guy, etc... Call it what you will, but I love martins. Kids wait for Santa, I wait for my purple feathered friends. Anyway, does anyone want to venture as to the date of their arrival. My guess is December 30th for Florida.

C.C.Martins · Sat Nov 21, 2020 8:29 am

Shoot Dave,
Had to go there! Its the martin season doldrums. Yeah understand, have 2 natural gourds in the living room just sitting there staring at me. Ready to go.

Ok ill wager a guess....
Texas: Jan 21st.
Florida: Dec 28th.
Ill stick my scrawney neck out and say feb 10 for my birds.

Winner gets a donated 20 unit PMCA gourd rack with all the trimmings, nest cam, predator guard, pine straw for life, harley davidson motorcycle (had to say it), ground stake, 6 20lb bags of quick crete, 4 pairs of martins?

Wish you all the best 2021!

Kegger · Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:21 pm

I'll say December 26th here in SW Florida, Texas January 11. I better get crackin on my new nest treys.

Dave Duit · Mon Nov 23, 2020 7:42 pm

It takes until the end of March, beginning of April here in central Iowa for my martins to return. In southern Florida I believe the first arriving martin in th elower 48 states wears a Santa hat. I think the PMCA has this martin pic on file and has been documented. lol.

Dave Reynolds · Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:39 am

..... I'm guessing January 2 for the state of Florida,, and January 27 for Texas... Good Luck everyone in 2021...

Dave

PMDavid · Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:21 am

Ok guys I’m in(for the Harley) that’ll make me have two. I’m gonna say my birds here in central Louisiana are gonna show 2-8-21. -2-10-21 somewhere in there. If I’m limited to just a one day guess I’m gonna call 2-11-21. REALLY want that Harley!

Dave Reynolds · Sun Nov 29, 2020 8:23 am

PMDavid wrote: ↑
Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:21 am
Ok guys I’m in(for the Harley) that’ll make me have two. I’m gonna say my birds here in central Louisiana are gonna show 2-8-21. -2-10-21 somewhere in there. If I’m limited to just a one day guess I’m gonna call 2-11-21. REALLY want that Harley!

..
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PMDavid ...

Don’t forget that the “Second Place” prize is a full Year’s subscription to the PMCA Forum.

Good Luck, and have a great 2021...

Dave

Dave Duit · Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:08 am

If anyone can find and post the purple martin with the santa hat, that would be great. Keep on guessing for the first arrival. : )

SMJohnson · Sat Dec 19, 2020 10:20 am

My prediction is that Mike Dingman of Melbourne Florida
will be the first to report a Martin sighting on the
Continental United States on January 3rd 2021.

rrmartins · Sat Dec 19, 2020 5:04 pm

South Florida, January 1st.

Mike Dingman · Sun Dec 20, 2020 10:14 am

Well, I do sort of feel selfish in wanting to be the first again to report a Purple Martin arriving in North America to begin a new season of working with the birds we all love, and love to help them along with their needed housing/nesting success/and eventual fledging of young, and then watch their numbers diminish from our back yards as they return to South America.
It was December 23, 2014 at 8 am when I noticed my first bird of the season that year, an ASY female. Since I am retired now from full time work, I have had more time to get the housing ready and installed. I built my first owl/hawk cage on a 12 room modified to a 6 room metal house back in 1999. Now I have 3 racks of 12 Super Gourds each, and I have them wrapped in a cage to help prevent aerial predation, it works well, but not 100% effective. (I saw a Red Shouldered Hawk glide up from underneath and take an adult bird right off the porch). I read with great interest Jim Chamberlin of Port Clinton, OH. His article in is in the Update Volume 21(4). He has lots of good information and pictures of his cage and housing set up. I used his ideas and made my housing perform the same way, cage stays up, gourds are lowered for nest checks. My first cage/housing set up worked ok, but the cage went up and down with the gourds. I had a GHO in 2013, lost 6 ASY martins over a 6 day period, I bought a roll of fence material with 2"X4" openings and wrapped the 4 gourd racks all in one afternoon. I attached the cage with horizontal mounted garden stakes, (bamboo), and used the aluminum own guards over in front of the entrances of the gourds to secure the cage with plastic wire ties. I cut openings in the cage to reach in and do nest checks. It worked well that season, but I had to do it a better/easier way, so that is what I have now, thank you JIM! I also read with great interest Kathy Freeze's article, from Licking, MO. She too had GHO problems and she solved it with several ideas plus the wire cages. I liked and copied her idea of the under sill vinyl trim piece to provide the birds with a superior perching platform to make it so much easier for the Martins to negotiate the arrival and egress of the protected gourds behind the cage. Thank you Kathy! Volume 28(3). That's about it from Melbourne, FL at this time, I will for sure post a notice when I first hear, then see my first returning Purple Martin of the 2021 season. Good luck to all of you.

C.C.Martins · Tue Dec 22, 2020 12:52 pm

Well. Louisiana LL on the board!
Best wishes to all this season

Dave Duit · Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:25 pm

Wow!!! Carolyn Prevost of Branch, Louisiana reported December 21st, 2020. That just blows my mind tp see a martin that early. I was way off on my prediction. Mike Dingman was a close second in Florida on December 23rd. Congrats to both of you for having the first martins in your state.

PMDavid · Thu Dec 24, 2020 2:08 pm

Congratulations to my fellow Louisianan on the first report. Awful early and just blows my mind and sadly also blows my chances for the Harley,durnit. That is also only an hour south of me which means I better get on the stick here man and get my gourds up! You would think it’s an isolated incident,but what if they are really on their way very early. Gettin busy today man and gonna keep my eye on the scout report page. Good luck everyone!

Habsboy · Thu Dec 24, 2020 5:15 pm

Maybe our winter won't be so bad... I'm up here in SW Ontario and have seen tons of Robins and have eastern bluebirds still hanging around. They must know something (I hope). Got my first pair of Martin's this yr and fledged 2. I hope I get more come spring.

Dave Duit · Sat Dec 26, 2020 6:41 pm

Congrats Habsboy on your first martins last season. This coming martin season will be the most important since now it will be a numbers game. Building the numbers will depend on many things including if a percent of your last seasons babies survived the trip and if they come back to your location. If they do, be sure to follow everything mentioned on maintaining a good colony. I wish you the best my friend.

Habsboy · Mon Dec 28, 2020 6:03 pm

Thanks Duit. I had a blast with this pair. It seemed every time she would leave gourd he would be right there and always escorted her back. It seemed a few others would fly around every time she came back to gourd as well. Day babies fledge which was really exciting. It seemed all the Martin's in my area (which aren't alott) all came to see them off. No problems with sparrows or starlings. Have starlings resistant entrances. Also guarded against snakes with netting.
Looking forward to see what I get in spring. Will keep my fingers crossed and eyes to the skies

Dave Duit · Mon Dec 28, 2020 8:14 pm

Hi Habsboy,
It looks like you are and have been a good responsible landlord. The martins are a blast to take care of during their time in the US.

Dave Reynolds · Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:25 pm

Habsboy wrote: ↑
Mon Dec 28, 2020 6:03 pm
Thanks Duit. I had a blast with this pair. It seemed every time she would leave gourd he would be right there and always escorted her back. It seemed a few others would fly around every time she came back to gourd as well. Day babies fledge which was really exciting. It seemed all the Martin's in my area (which aren't alott) all came to see them off. No problems with sparrows or starlings. Have starlings resistant entrances. Also guarded against snakes with netting.
Looking forward to see what I get in spring. Will keep my fingers crossed and eyes to the skies

..
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..... Habsboy.... Watching Purple Martins little ones grow up and fledge is great... I have had times that I know there is not a Martin within five miles of me, and then when the babies are close to fledging, Martins come out of no where... hang around until the babies fledge.. One year I had 4 babies ready to fledge and 15 Martins show up every day until they fledged.. Good Luck in 2021

Dave