Purple Martin Forum

Conrad, I haven't seen birds in over a week here at my colony in Palm City, FL. I'm about 30 miles north of West Palm Beach. Figured I begin to take my gourds down, clean and store them until mid-December for next season. Began to lower the 1st rack of 24 gourds and heard the familiar screech of a m...

Hello to all,
Dropped my 3 racks today and all my renters have left! All gourds are empty but martins are still in the neighborhood and going to and from the racks. Totals this year were as follows: 325 Eggs, 260 hatch, and 234 fledge.
Later, Mike

To you Louisiana Martiners, Know your pain. I'm over here in south Florida and still have 10 youngsters in gourds. Probably all will be gone on next week's nest check and my season will likely be over. Always a bummer to miss all the noise from the colony in the mornings and afternoons. But all that...

Hello to all,
Thought this would be my last check for the season but found 10 youngsters still gourd-bound; 8 in Rack #1 and 2 in Rack #2. Fledged 224 and with the 10 left, I'm looking at 234 possibles; fewer than last year.
Se ya next week.

Hello to all,
Neglected to mention total fledges thus far - 192. Mike, Palm City, FL

Hello to all,
Dropped my colony yesterday and here we go. 15 young still in Rack 1, 20 young in Rack #2 and 14 in Rack #3. Expect to have a few young still in gourds next week - late clutches.
See ya next week, Mike, Palm City FL.

Hello to all, Dropped my colony yesterday. Rack #1 - 21 young still the the gourds and 51 have fledged; Rack #2 - 74 puppies still at home and 28 have fledged; Rack #3 - 28 still in the gourds and 43 have fledged. Totals - 123 still in the gourds and 122 have tried out their wings. See ya next week....

Hello to all, Dropped my racks today and here are my results. Rack #1 - 40 young and 36 fledges. Rack #2 - 98 young and 16 fledges. Rack #3 - 58 young and 10 fledges. 196 young still in the nests and 62 have taken flight. Did find 2 dead young on today's count. Eggs still in the nests are infertile....

Hello to all, Dropped my colony this weekend. Total young now at 238 scattered among 61 gourds. Egg count is 31. Potential fledges is 269; down 19 from last week. Go figure. Example - Upper 1 of Rack 1 had 6 eggs on 4/18 and no eggs the week prior. Had 6 eggs 4/24 and 3 young but no eggs on 5/2 chec...

Hello to all, Dropped my racks this weekend and here are the data. Going to give totals by rack this week followed by a grand total. Rack #1 - Three gourds with nesting material but empty, 27 eggs and 60 young. Rack #2 - all gourds with production, 35 eggs and 86 young. Rack #3 - 5 empty nests, 18 e...

Hi to all, Nothing special; just out on my deck enjoying a pleasant summer afternoon here in south Florida. My martins are active bringing bugs to the nestlings. I dropped one rack yesterday and have youngsters from eggs, pinkies to guys sporting pinfeathers. Will finish my count of the colony tomor...

Hello to all, Dropped my 3 racks over the weekend and here are the results for the 72 gourds. 64 gourds so far are productive - eggs. 8 gourds had some nesting material but still haven't developed thus far. Egg count is now at 155 and young (pinkies to pin feathers) 135. If all survive, which is dou...

Hi All, Observed a ASY male on the porch of U12 - Rack 1. Had a small mosquito hawk in its bill and entered the gourd. Feeding Mom? My checks are showing young still with prominent yolk sacs. This gourd had 1 egg on 4/11. 5 on 4/18, 5 on 4/24 and 5 young on 5/2. Good hatch but too young to eat mosqu...

Conrad, Eight to take care of is gonna be tuff. I would suspect you may find one starves due to feeding competition from older/stronger siblings in a nest that size. If you find this happens again I would be more likely to put the blame on sub-adults rather than mom tossing one of her kids. Maybe yo...

Hi to all Dropped my 3 racks today and here are my totals. 10 gourds - look like a full completed nest but no eggs, 5 gourds had a gathering of leaves and pine needles. The remaining 57 gourds had a combination of 191 eggs and 61 young. Found 3 remains of martin eggs under Rack 1. Sub-adult activity...

Hi Laura, Don't get too upset. Burrowing owls and martins are just about the same size - a mean martin may out box a slim burrowing owl! Remember all God's creatures gotta eat. Burrowing owls are in a lot more trouble than martins. Florida's expanding population is currently "paving" over ...

Hello to all, Dropped my racks today for a count. Usually do this on Saturdays but gonna be busy this weekend. Skipping all the details of each rack and just going to the totals. A single gourd is still bare - nothing but plastic. Eleven gourds contained just a few leaves/pine needles, 20 gourds had...

Hope you don't run into problems with starlings and house sparrows - those big round entrances look mighty inviting for the bad boys. Do you have a predator guard below what we can see in the photos? These two mentioned threats could turn out to be more trouble than up side down plastic martins. Mik...

Hello to all, Dropped my racks today and here are the totals. Rack 1 - 4 gourds with just a few leaves and pine needles, 20 nests and 57 eggs. Three gourds had "sitting" females, probably on eggs, but I gave the girls space - no egg count. Rack 2 - 6 gourds with just a few needles and leav...

Hello Everyone, Dropped my racks this beautiful afternoon and here are the results. Rack 1 - 19 nests, 5 gourds bare to a few leaves, 6 gourds with eggs (varied from 1 to 4), total eggs - 13. Rack 2 - 14 nests, 10 gourds bare to a few leaves,, 2 gourds with eggs (varied from 2 to 5), total eggs - 7....