Purple Martin Forum

Thanks Lane and I am not one bit surprised. That is the way I thought it would be from my observations. I felt pretty sure the tunneled sreh would at least break even and was quite confident they would more than hold their own against round holes. Having said that.... There is still one very strong ...

Emil I tend to agree and often tell people that who seek my advice about matins. An open location is at the top of the list. After that comes the ability to keep sparrows and starlings from taking over the housing Just Sunday I had an old friend tell me that he had hung two gourds that I prepared an...

Hey...Thanks Liz :wink: If I wanted to use round holes I certainly would and many have gone and given their life for freedom in America to make choice about big things and about little things as well. I believe in that and if I know my heart I would fight and die for the sake of freedom in America a...

Robert I have thought the very same thing. The way I built my colony was not a good test. I did start with a few round holes. As I added sreh with tunnels I quickly saw that the martins were very easily accepting them and seemed to be accepting them perhaps even a little better than the round holes ...

Mike Scully... I said no more posts but since the subject has changed slightly and has moved in a more positive direction I will break my word and post again. First...thank you Mike for your last very positive post and with that statement I can agree. Mike I fully, fully, believe the key here is the...

Just one more word and I probably should just get out now. ALL OF US have not seen wing entrapment. I have yet to ever see the first case with sreh and tunnels built the way I build them. It might be more correct to say SOME Or even MANY but not ALL of us have not seen wing entrapment. Just a small ...

The trend seems to be mostly one way. Many of us once used round holes and have now changed to sreh. Those who have tried sreh for a few years and decided to change back to all round holes are as scarce as martins teeth :lol: After trying it both ways I will never put up anything with round holes ag...

I Suppose we will never settle this debate, and so I will not even try to :roll: I will say that I have tried it both ways. I was a long time round hole martin man who went to all sreh. I don't know who has starling problems and who doesn't other than what they post and I certainly won't dispute the...

As I often do I find myself agreeing with Emil and Brad. Both of these men are top of the line martin men in my opinion. Whatever either posts would do well to be considered very closely

Sorry to hear about the problems with hail. I had problems one year and know something of how you feel. Mine were not as bad as first feared, perhaps yours will not be either. Emil answered about right. Sometimes we just ride things out because there isn't much else we can do. were I close enough I ...

You are very correct about many other things in life. Most of us spend a great deal of time chasing illusions that are not real and can never be real. If I get a hundred pairs of martins that will completely satisfy me...but it doesn't. If I can become a millionaire, etc., etc just pencil in about w...

Thanks everyone. I learn a lot from others. I am glad I can be a help sometimes.

Everyone needs to do that which pleases them in their own colony :wink: So my advice would be do what you believe in. My opinion is that Brad and Emil are spot on in what they say and I agree 100 % having had the same kind of experience. I know many swear by chatter and dawnsong and some of those wh...

This one is pretty easy to figure out... since you know you have a sparrow nest and have been removing it. You have a sparrow problem . I don't know if it is revenge or not, that is what it is often called. I am not sure sparrows feel the need to get revenge, perhaps they do...who knows? Smile. They...

Thanks everyone. I did cut my colony size down this year by quite a bit. and also forced them to relocate to my front yard. I now offer 140 cavities in my front yard and about all my rigs are very, very easy to lower and raise. A few are still on winch and pulley systems but part of thm are on count...

Actually there have been quite few, but most of the time I just kept quiet and hoped no one found out what a blunder I made....smile Looking back I think the biggest of all was focusing too much on the number of pairs. It is hard not to do. With a good open location and a little of the good informat...

Don that makes sense to me that the older and more stable a colony is the more closely the numbers will match from year to year. A growing colony will be harder to gauge because allowance would need to be made for the growth. There are always going to be some variations, especially early in the seas...

Louise; While nest checks and counts are very accurate head counts and estimates of numbers are not very accurate at all, but it still would give us some idea of where we are in the migration process. You are very correct again. Many people read first scout arrival reports and think they are missing...

In another post a question was asked about the stage we were in in the migration. No one seems to really know. Of course the answer will vary from south to north as the birds come back. Let me suggest a good project for all who read this that will advance our understanding of the migration. Why not ...

Right Larry. Don't obstruct the upward martin view more than is needful to keep water from blowing inside