Purple Martin Forum

Oh wow what a story! You are a good person!
Yes I would love to see pics! my email is dancingirl76@yahoo.com
So far my husband hasn't gotten into the hobby. He supports it but I don't know that I can ever see him going to the lengths we all go to lol
Yes- I do think we are all crazy!

Wow PM! I know how that is though- if you do nothing and something happens you would feel terrible. If something bad happens and at least you tried... well it is at least bearable that they were given a chance. I took in a baby last year during the day because it was doing very poorly. My hubby thou...

they seem to be very happy today able to get out and fly and eat. just glad i did what i did yesterday morning because by the time i got home from work there hadnt been much melting yet. i would have been upset if i hadnt and the ones didnt make it but they are all good today and doing great

Never in a million years would I have thought we would have 6 inches of snow at my house in southern iowa on May 3rd! But we did. We have had around 14 PMs staying at our house and gourds so far this spring. When it got light out I went outside to put some fresh jelly out for our orioles and looked ...

Out of the 8 Bo-11 gourds I started with this spring, only 3 do not have any eggs in them. There are birds staying in the gourds (I think sub males in two that did not get mates, and then one sub pair that build a nice nest, but never have laid eggs. I have one gourd with 6 nestlings about 2 wks old...

Yes, and no. I lost a full nest of 5 babies two years ago to a raccoon and didn't have any protector on the box. I put my own homemade one on and the parents returned and raised two more broods without any issues. But, last year none of my BBs would nest in the same box until I took it off. I waited...

At first it bothered me to think about killing a bird, but it doesn't take long to realize what a pest they are (HOSPs) and it wasn't long before I took pleasure in it. So far after some changes I made this fall and winter, haven't had any around. I keep looking though and am ready with my .22 with ...

That is one thing about birds, they don't have a sense of smell so they don't abandon the babies if you handle them. I have had to even fix the BB nests before and took out the eggs (very carefully) and replaced. Our BB house had a metal mesh drop floor that was to keep the nest of the bottom for ve...

Last year one of my pairs but nesting materials in three compartments. They had their main nest that they laid their eggs in, then the male had a compartment he stayed in at night, and then he had put some material in another compartment. I think he just didn't want anyone around other than the one ...

I also have the 1.9 round pole with the rope and pulley system with the American Barn with SREH entrances with wing entrapment guards. We got it last year and for the first time got PMs to stay and even nest and raise some young. Prior to that we had a pole that was extremely difficult for me to rai...

wow how wonderful to hear you have kept trying for so long! good luck!

I agree that shooting the HOSPs keeps it a little less personal than trapping them and then having to "dispose" of them. It seems more humane for some reason too because when I have trapped them they are frantic and then.... I also agree with the poster that sometimes changing what birds y...

I got a sparrow trap off of this site last year that fit into one of the house compartments; however, I was too scared to leave it while I was gone because I did catch a male PM and boy was he glad for me to let him go! I had some decent success with the trap getting the sparrows if I let them start...

I'm getting so excited for this season to start. The new square pole with pulley rope and winch, gourd rack, and Bo11 gourds with tunnels are on their way to me. I'm so excited to get everything up and see how this years martins like them. I also have my house up (well right now it is retracted down...

I had the same thing happen last year but it was because the PM couldn't figure out how to go through the cresent entry. He slept outside for 2 nights. Finally his woman showed him how to go through and then he was in and out just fine

I have my house/pole near a barbed wire fence. It actually works out well because the martins would go sit on the top wire at times as a perch. I agree that it would not be good to have it up against the fence (predators would have a several feet advantage to getting up your pole), or too close to w...

Beautiful photos! Makes you wonder what on earth makes them brave those temps to start migrating. I'd still be in sunny MX sunning myself lol.

It is funny that when we had our first house which had round holes that we had trouble over and over with starlings. I truly believe they were why we hadn't ever had any PMs set up shop, but once we switched to the crescent entrances the starlings tried a few times and then moved on. We haven't seen...

Nice pictures! I especially liked the sunset one. I love pictures that are backlit like that. Really pretty!

Awesome post! How neat that you were able to show some of the variety. Yes of course this is a small fraction of what they bring- but how neat to see a group of different insects that show just how versatile their diet is. Anything goes!