Purple Martin Forum

I was just in the Hilton Head area for a few days, actually Daufuskie Island, which is adjacent. I saw at least 3 Troyer houses up there, in what look like pretty good sites. I was surprised to see no martin activity. Have the martins in Hilton Head area already fledged their young? Or do these Troy...

Could not agree more, have to get rid of the house sparrows. Use the nestbox traps. I usually end up just shooting the male sparrows, but I live in the country where that is no problem.

One more, just relearning how to put photos up here.

Not satisfied with these photos but the best I have so far.

Just discovered one at my colony in Versailles KY. My colony is 16 years old and I typically have 65 or so pairs. I have a crappy cell phone pic but I'm charging up my good camera, will try and get a good picture tomorrow. About how many are reported every year? Anybody know? I have not been monitor...

We are all suffering from a serious mental condition, PMLLESAS, Purple Martin Land Lord Early Season Anxiety Syndrome.

I predict everything will be fine and this condition will be supplanted by PMLLMSAS for the mid-season.

I grew gourds from the seeds provided by PMCA. Actually, my vines did great last year. I was late planting them, but they produced a LOT of gourds, just two vines. My concern was about drying them, many people have told me the gourds rotted while drying. I thought these were going to rot, I thought ...

I thought all my gourds were going to rot but they all came through just fine! Four of the larger ones still have a little bit of weight to them but all the others are nice and dry, none have rotted. This was sitting on an enclosed porch in KY all winter.

I have a friend that I had talked into getting martin housing up, he has an ideal site. But now he is getting cold feet. He is also a beekeeper and is worried about Martins eating his queens and drones when they are on their mating flight. Anyone have experience with this? I want to say that the mar...

Too late for me to leave on the vine till brown since I cut them yesterday. I thought you left em on till the VINE turned brown, which is what I did. Somehow I thought that letting them freeze was a problem. At any rate, I have them in an enclosed porch. I'm planning on letting them dry for a week o...

So I planted gourds for the first time this year. I thought I planted way too late but ended up with two healthy vines, one had 6 gourds, the other 18! About two thirds are big enough for martins, some of the smaller gourds I plan to use for BBs, my wife wants a couple for crafts. They are quite gre...

I kill roughly 200 starlings per year, maybe a dozen sparrows. I usually get to a point about halfway through the season when the s&s pressure seems to ease up. Doesn't go away, just eases up. No sign of reducing their population, already seeing the huge flocks of starlings that range around all...

My supergourds are about 13 years old and still in great shape. Like you say, they do need new caps after a while. But I also have to say that my S-K Big Bo gourds are also in great shape and the caps are holding up well, too. The porches have broken off but the main gourd and cap are "like new...

I personally have never experienced so much rain. I try to never complain about the weather, just accept it. I still feel bad for all the folks that are too dry. We have had many many many days of rain here this year, it's in the top 5 all time, I believe.

My season is just about done, just a handful of birds left, my last day is usually closer to August 4th or 5th.

We actually had SO MUCH RAIN this summer that it stressed the colony, so many days or rain they had trouble feeding at times.

I did have a record number of active nests, 68.

My opinion is that mites are even harder to eliminate than starlings or sparrows. They are a fact of life. Goal should be control. You could boil your gourds for a week in the off season and you will still have mites in them next summer.

Virtually all wild birds have mites. It's not overwintering mites or mites from sparrows that get in the gourds but mites from purple martins.

Might want to put up some of these artificial nest cups in overhang locations http://www.americanartifacts.com/smma/per/nestord.htm I have had several up for several years with no takers, though. There was a very active colony in and around the abandoned house we bought. When we re-did the house in ...

I have seen fledglings take off from the nest for the first time and carom off the side of my house! They are very vulnerable during those first few days as they learn to fly, any opportunistic predator would take them.

Luckily for the martins, that window of vulnerability is very short.

Any luck with this situation? Any updates?