Purple Martin Forum

Congratulations. Looking forward arrivals here in Pearland (just south of Houston) in a month or so. I'm ready, in case they're early.

2015 Austin (other years should be equally easy...just click on the arrow in the city column to sort alphabetically by city): Austin 2015-03-22 A.P. PUNDT Austin 2015-03-15 Claire Perkins Austin 2015-03-14 Name Withheld Austin 2015-02-28 Isabella Rees Austin 2015-02-18 Name Withheld Austin 2015-02-1...

The bird that I inadvertently "force-fledged" yesterday was back at the house today; later in the afternoon he took off again and apparently encouraged his three nest mates to take their first flight as well.

A somewhat related question..... Today was earliest possible fledge date for my remaining nestlings. The biggest, strongest one spent most of the day out on the porch, and this afternoon I inadvertently startled him and he took off. Daddy Martin was right there with him, and they flew off together. ...

In Pearland TX (20 mi south of Houston), I have an ASY pair that re-nested after having a completely non-viable clutch back in May. They moved from their unsuccessful gourd location to the S&K "Royal Wing" house and have four great-looking nestlings that should fledge this weekend. The...

Thirteen pairs and their 50 babies have left my place, but two pairs that had completely infertile clutches on their first round have re-nested. One pair has four healthy chicks about 10 days old, and the other clutch of four eggs should hatch sometime this coming week.

I had two complete nests (11 eggs) that failed to develop. One mama started throwing out eggs about a week before I helped her with the final decision by candling the eggs and confirming they were duds. The other female diligently sat the eggs until they were more than a week overdue. Similarly, I f...

When I candled the eggs, it was obvious there had been little to no development at all. Basically a congealed yolk at one end and a void at the other. Either they were all infertile from the get-go, or their incubation went off the rails early in the process.

I have two gourds where I've just confirmed all eggs were non-viable. The eggs were all laid within a couple of days of each other, so I'm wondering if they might have been damaged by excessive agitation at just the "wrong" time during some early May storms. Each pair is headed up by an AS...

Looking back through past scout reports for Kentucky, in the "SY Male" section at the bottom, will give you insight into arrival dates. I see some in May, and even in June. It appears there's still time.

Is it possible that they are already established at another nearby, but poorly managed, colony? Maybe they find yours more appealing, but just aren't yet willing to make the commitment to "jump ship" from their current housing.

The only other thing I would add is that the fence may make it more difficult to do nest checks.

If the rack "spinning in the breeze" is an issue, I think you could clamp some "guide cables" to the pole (running vertically, top to bottom, straddling a gourd mount arm).

I sent the note below to the "Contact Us" page of http://www.bridgepark.org/ I am a member of the Purple Martin Conservation Association, and recently a fellow member of The Purple Martin Forum noticed a martin house in the 1862 Mathew Brady photo of the "Navy Yard Bridge" (where...

Hi Ray, the tall structure you're seeing to the left in John's photo is actually one of the smokestacks at the Navy Yard. Below is a link to a photo of the unfinished Washington Monument from the same time frame (also a Mathew Brady photo). Notice the different proportions....they hadn't made much p...

The exact location of the 1862 martin house is now Interstate 695. But, if you look at an overhead satellite photo of the general area, there is open green space and a high school about 1/4 mile to the east northeast.

Looks a little different these days......

http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u49 ... _today.jpg

It is possible that the image is "flipped"....notice the hand-scrawled "343" is mirror-image at the top of the photo. So, if a bridge right-of-way and the large smokestack still exist, try searching for them with the reverse orientation as well. If the orientation is correct, cou...

Do you think a second pole with a house might attract any SY birds from the surrounding area that might be more "imprinted" on a house as opposed to gourds? This would give any "lookers" this year a choice of housing type.

Jose, how are other sites set up? Do they utilize gourds, houses or a combination of both? Last year's fledglings from other nearby sites might be attracted to new sites that bear some resemblance to their "home" site.