Purple Martin Forum

I have a titmouse brooding 5 eggs in one of my bluebird houses. I'm really surprised to see her there since it's an area with high human activity. Every year I have titmice checking out my bluebird houses, and occasionally they start nests, but they usually abandon the nests before they finish becau...

That's very impressive Steve. I sure wouldn't want to be a dragonfly flying through your yard. :-)

Thanks. The tree swallow pair has definitely settled in. I want them to stay, but I'm going to try to convince them to move to one of the houses that's made for them and away from my gourd rack. This is the first time I've had tree swallows, and I can already see their territorial nature. The house ...

Well, I've pretty much given up for the year, but when I stepped out today I saw what I thought was a first year male perching on my gourd rack...but he looked very small for a martin. The sun was in my eyes, so I couldn't get a good ID on the bird. I went inside for a second and then looked again.....

Thanks Jeff

I have four bluebird boxes setup and spread out across the yard. Only one of the four was used last year, I spent the rest of last year chasing sparrows out of the other three.

I'm hoping for a better occupancy rate this year.

Hi folks, We rarely saw bluebirds around here until last year when we hosted a pair in a newly mounted bluebird house. They successfully hatched five young ones that followed their parents around for several weeks afterward. Now, that we're approaching nesting season again, I'm seeing a small flock ...

Hey Tony,

Are they still hanging around?

I may be eaten alive for saying this in this forum, but I could probably tolerate the sparrows if their numbers were DRASTICALLY reduced. There's just TOO MANY of them. Wipe out 95% of them in North America, and keep their population at that rate, and I'm happy--if only that were possible. I do thin...

Here's the link to the house.

http://www.50birds.com/MPSideMount.htm

I think we owe the Amish a great deal of thanks for doing their part to get our martin population growing.

Thanks folks. I have a small bluebird flock of 7 bluebirds that hangs around...I'm pretty sure it's the nesting pair from last year plus their five offspring from the successful hatch. They've been very interested in the new real estate. but no other interest yet. What I REALLY LIKE about this house...

You can find lots of tourist information online about Ethridge, Tennessee's Amish Community. We'll be going back every year, but it's just a short day trip for us. I think the Amish brought the martins to Ethridge, but everyone in the community is enjoying them. It seems that more than half of the n...

Last weekend, I built a couple of houses like the one in the photo attached. The entrance hole is 1 and 3/8 inch across and (according to the website where I found the plans) perfect for Chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, etc. I have the two houses up and ready for visitors. The only change I made to ...

Just north of Lawrenceburg in south central Tennessee is the town of Ethridge and the largest Amish community in the South. If you ever get a chance to visit during "Martin Season," do it. Nearly every Amish home has active martin houses and/or gourds stringed up from building to building....

Yes, several times but be sure to use it the way you described. Make sure it is a HS that has nested. Set the trap and watch. It doesn't take long before they come back to the nest. Another way I get them is to wait until after dark, open up the box quickly reaching in and grab them before they kno...

I'm thinking about setting a mousetrap or rat trap to catch/kill HOSP. Of course, I'd watch from a distance while it was out to make sure ONLY HOSP went in.

Has anyone ever trapped this way? Wondering if it would work. Any feedback?

That's a lot of activity for only one nesting pair. You'll probably have all of your gourds occupied next year.

Hey Tony, this is just my best guess, but I think you're good the way you are. If you had so much interest this year, some of those martins are bound to come back again next year. The key is the fact that you had interest. If your current setup wasn't good enough, they wouldn't have been any interes...

Hey Tony,

So your visitors didn't stay for the season?

All five of the bluebirds fledged successfully. We've gone from never seeing a bluebird in our backyard to now seeing 7 flying around constantly. The two parents are staying in the area with the brood and teaching them how to catch insects. My first year martins are still hanging around and visiting...