Purple Martin Forum

Usually this time of year I start to really miss the cabin in the north woods (and the martins) so today I was perusing photos from the summer to fuel my desire for long days and warm temperatures, so i thought I'd share. I got the new T-14 up at the end of the season after the birds left and donate...

Well, I didn't take y'alls advice on putting up both at the same time. Mostly because I'm on an island and didn't have another pole. I put in the pole last year and just put the old house on top of it for a temporary in case the birds got to the island before I did. Which, in fact, they did get ther...

After watching the colony for a day I decided to leave them alone this spring and wait until the fall to replace the house after they head south for fear of running them off. The birds seem super content with their current house despite my desire to get them into a bigger and fancier home. The old h...

I just got out to our place on an island in MN early this morning with plans to put up my new T-14. The lake thawed late this year and I usually get to the cabin right after the lake thaws but it was a couple weeks later than normal after a long cold winter. As I said in earlier posts /pictures I pu...

The pic is the old house on the new pole. The old house was on a swing down 4x4 system and I just put it up there temporarily on the new pole when I left the cabin for the winter last fall. New house is going up in a few weeks if the lake ever gets around to thawing (Minnesota). Our place is on an i...

I will admit I don't know anything about tri tel poles and don't have personal experience with one. I did just put in a new 15' martin house pole using a helical pile system. Company I used was technometalpost. It was surprisingly inexpensive for what I got. I had the company drive in the helical pi...

Thanks for the encouragement! The old house has been at half capacity for a few years, and due to the smaller compartments I think, usually the nests often have only two eggs, though one had 3 last year that fledged. Also, I see a lot of people talking about tree swallows and how they don't coexist ...

Hey all, first post but I have lurked the forums for a while. Always manage to learn something, so thanks for that! I've been a martin landlord for a few years at our island and cabins in central Minnesota. My dad put up a hexagonal 12 room house before he passed and it was mounted on a swivel-down ...