Purple Martin Forum

Phil,

Sorry to hear about all the problems your site is experiencing because of SY males. I took the wet nest out yesterday and today, the ASY pair started a new nest. Hope they have better luck

Berndog, I do have about 6 or 7 SY males at my site and they are causing a commotion. I noticed a male sparrow on the gourd today. No sign of the ASY pair. Maybe the chose other housing in my site

One of my gourds that had an ASY pair had eggs. I use the Troyer vertical gourds with Connley II entrance. Parents weree on eggs 2 days ago. Yesterday we had terrible rain. I did not see parents tonight, do I checked nest and no eggs. The nest was very wet, but not disturbed. No eggs around the hous...

Hanover Bill and Glynn thank you very much for your responses. The owl hit 2 more nights, but it baffles me, because the gourd rack with 12 gourds has not been touched. Maybe I should not say that too loud. I hope the attacks have finally stopped, but he, it, they did some major damage to my colony ...

My PMC 24 with 12 converted cavaties was hit last night. I found 6 of the crescent doors and porch dividers on the ground this morning. Babies seem to be ok, as what ever tried raiding the house was not able to reach around in to the compartments containing the babies. The four gourds below the hous...

Sorry to hear about your site Toy. Hopefully most of the remaining eggs will hatch and fledge. My site is not doing very well either, our May was cold, then 2 weeks of heat and no rain. It was a strange spring. Fingers crossed for the remaining eggs at your site!

Now that you mention it. I have never seen the chimney swifts around our home chase a hawk either. The blue jays are very good at letting everyone else know the hawk is around. At the farm it always the martins and barn swallows chasing them.

Last week was a busy week. 6 of my final 7 nests fledged. I still have one nest left and surprisingly, it is ASY pair. I think their first nest must have failed. Normally my first nests start fledging around 4th of July, but this year it was closer to July 11th. Our spring was a bit cool and wet and...

I am in central Illinois and I have noticed a few times in spring, when weather is cool, our martins will fly low over the pasture and fields. I assume they are feeding. I have never noticed it when weather is nice and warm.

Thanks John & Matt. I have had martins for about 12 years and this is only the second adult I have found dead in the housing. I have had my share of dead baby martins over the years for various reasons. The only other adult I have lost in housing was a ASY female who was on nest, without eggs an...

Thank you Toy! Tonight they seemed less aggressive than last night. Our weather warmed up a bit today and finally some sunshine Tomorrow another rainy and cooler day, but 70's by Friday.

Yesterday evening, when checking my housing, I found a dead ASY male in one of the compartments. The compartment had the start of a nest. I know I have been having problems with sparrows this spring, but last night, I did see 2 or 3 other martins fighting to get in this compartment. Will ASY males f...

Yesterday we had rain for most of the day, then over night heavy rains and temps down into the 40's. Today, temps in the mid 50's and a bit windy at times, not much hunting today. I know there are nests with young not more than a few days old, so not sure if they will make it or not. There was not a...

I have a ASY pair in one of my gourds. Female is sitting on her eggs. In the gourd next to this gourd is another completed nest. I thought a second ASY pair made their nest in this gourd. I had not seen much activity in this second gourd, but left the completed nest. I have noticed the ASY from the ...

Thank you Deb. I will leave the nest and see what happens. Hopefully if the original pair do not come back to the gourd, maybe another pair will claim it.

I have one gourd that has a complete nest in it, but no eggs. For the past two days, I have not seen any martins going or coming from this gourd. All the other gourds have activity. I am not sure if something happened to one or both of the maritns in this gourd. Should I clean out the nest and see i...

I agree with John, you can expect visitors in April. The main thing is to keep the starlings and sparrows away. At a new site, they can easily drive away interested martins. I am in central Illinois and the very first pair I got to nest 10 years ago did not show up until the end of May first of June...

Very interesting article. My guess would be, if purple martin flew into the path, they would be affected. Very sad to hear and see this. It really needs to be regulated!!

I was blessed with 33 pairs of martins this season. My site has 2 parts. Housing on the farm, which is very open and small set up sitting on the pond at the farm. The pond setting has alot of trees around, but is open by the housing, the housing sits right on the shore of the pond. By late May, ther...

Dave, I am about 100 miles south of Chicago and I still have 2 nests that have not fledged yet. If my calculations are correct, they should both fledge in about 2 days. This will be the latest fledge date for my site. I also have about 10 other martins still hanging around. I think they are fledges ...