Purple Martin Forum

Thanks for all the great information. I can't believe we are only 2 months into this season and I'm already thinking about how to make things better for next year. HAHA

Thank you. I was just worried about them possibly falling out the front of the gourd in high winds. That may be a dumb worry though.

I have a colony that uses the old metal castle and next year I am going to replace it with a gourd rack. I already have the gourds. They are the super gourds with crescent troyer tunnels added to them. My question is regarding the arms. I want to the gourds to swing from "side to side" not...

So I am adding the troyer tunnels to my super gourds and one of the steps is to increase the size of the hole in the super gourd. My question is does anyone know why this would be necessary? It seems to me that if the martins can get into the super gourd hole without the tunnel added then they can g...

Things are still rocking and rolling in SW Texas but I have a question for all you experts. We've been putting martin houses up (2 or 3) for about 10 years and like clockwork they are always gone right at or after the 4th of July. We have some stragglers that come through but basically they are gone...

Update from SW Texas. I'm stuck working in Dallas but I know the SW Texas martins are about to head south. I'm headed down for July 4th but I know by then many will be gone. I asked my uncle to count as best he could the total number of birds at least out of the houses. Rough counts are 86 birds act...

Okay all you hummingbird experts I have a question. We have Black Chinned hummers in west Texas and along the Devils River we use to have a LOT of them. Beginning about two years ago we started seeing the numbers decrease and this year we have yet to see one, which is completely unheard of. I know t...

Went to Lake Amistad for Easter and snapped a few pics from the houses I have there. It's really hard to tell how many we have this year. They are finally going for the new gourds we introduced which makes me happy. My best guess is between my Uncle's house and my house we have between 100 - 130 bir...

ChadP - It's awesome I think that you can remember your Grandfather while doing something you love. What a great way to wake up every morning!!!!

I'm jealous!! I only get to hear them on the weekends. Good luck and keep everyone posted on this year's PMs

Got back from Lake Amistad last night around 7:00. At my house I counted about 12. I think most of them were males. Not sure I can tell the difference in first year males and females. we still have them coming in. This is the first year for the gourds so right now they seem to like the houses. At my...

Thanks for all the welcomes. Very happy to be here now. apundt-TX - out of Dallas I head west on I20 to Cisco, Cross Plains, San Angelo and then south. Much easier and faster. Our 10 acre property is about 35 miles north of Del Rio on Devils River so we pretty much have every possible predator known...

Wanted to introduce myself and give a quick update. My uncle and I have two colonies (one on Lake Amistad close to Del Rio TX and one on Lake Whitney in central TX) My uncle has been an "old school" landlord for over 10 years. I got interested about three years ago. Over the last three yea...