Purple Martin Forum

Hi Bill. I am just south of you in Maryland. Looks like next week could be bad
weather wise again with 3 straight days of rain in the forecast. Hope the forecast turns in
our favor
Joe

Bill: How about a Carolina Wren. They like to build in sheds with a bulky nest
Joe

Bill: I agree if we do not get an influx of ASY birds by May 1st we should be very concerned! I have about 5 pair now - usually about 25 pair by this time. I have a very well managed site and last year was great! Over the past week or so I was expecting a significant increase but that did not happen...

Hi Bill: Same thing here in northern Maryland. I have an established colony of 35-40 pair each year for the past 30 years. Last year was great, no issues. So far this year I have about five pair back, way below normal. I usually have at least 20 to 25 pair back by now. The few birds that are back ar...

Doug, What an incredible turnaround. Another oddity about this year is that the tree swallows came on time or earlier than usual and they came back in large numbers. Also I saw my first barn swallow yesterday 4/5/2017 about 2-3 weeks earlier than normal. So its seems that migration for most other bi...

Doug, Will have to keep track of what kind of recovery we may have over
the next week or so to see if the older birds actually do show up and our
concerns are overstated
We should keep posting on this issue!
Joe

Doug. I am seeing the same thing here in my colony in Westminster, Maryland. I have a very established 40 pair colony for many years - no issues at the end of last year. I have one lone male back and he is not one of my of older standing birds The return rate this year been far and few between compa...

Heads up! Tree swallow arrival today in Westminster, Md 3/8/2017
Almost two weeks ahead of their usual arrival

Hi all, Wanted to share another one of my feeble attempts to discourage owls. I have extended the original porches out to 12 inches by securing a cedar porch to the original porch and adding flat 1/2 aluminum slates as shown. Also I have added hardware cloth along the sides out about 5 1/2 inches. T...

Bill, Thanks for the great advice. I am going to take you up on it!
Sounds like it would just as effective and a lot easier to install
Joe

Have had owl troubles for many years and have tried all the commercial owl guards on both gourds and t-14 and my own modifications with extended rods But still the owls have many successful raids. I know this because the owls shows up on my shed about 75 feet from the t-14 every night at sunset and ...

Hi guys. Here north central Maryland the influx of SY Martins has been almost none existent. Just a few here and there. I have had a fairly large colony over the past 40 years (25-50 Pairs) and each spring there have been large influxes of SY birds thru the month June. Most of these very late arriva...

Steve: Yes the martins definitely prefer the eggs shells. What I have done on several occasions in the past is take a bucket with a liner to my local McDonalds in the early AM and request they save their eggshells for me. They always have. It only takes them one day to fill the bag and I have enough...

Hi guys, every year I have the GCF looking for a spot in my martin colony but there is no room for them. I was considering placing a solitary gourd near my tree line about 10 feet high to attack them next season. My question is will the GCF fit thru a conley-2 or extruder entrance. I would want to k...

Pmaratinlover2, I believe the Bo Gourd offers some protection because of the liner. Most of the rain water will not come up through the drain holes unless it can be absorbed: that means the nesting material has to lie directly against the drain hole. Pine straw is your best bet as set forth many tim...

Ed: Super gourds and extruder gourds require a bit more depth to the nest as they are deeper than the Troyer vertical and horizontal gourds. The Troyer vertical requires much less depth to the nest buildup, maybe and inch or so. It is amazing just how much water will wrap around these gourds and be ...

Ed, I used the paper napkins to see if the water came up through the holes. I use pine straw for nest material, but even that gets matted down as the season progresses and can get wet.

Hi: I was reading a recent post about nest becoming wet because water was coming up through the bottom drain holes. So I took a clean troyer horizontal nest gourd: sealed the top of the gourd where the rod fits thought the gourd to hold it in place and taped the joint where the tunnel fits on the go...

Hi, I have lots of babies fall to the ground or barely able to fly. Maybe 20 to 30 (3 -5 a day over the past week). I have about 40+ pairs for past 35-40 years. I do not consider these jumpers as they are at or just past the fledging date. These birds are weak, thin, and cannot get airborne. Eventho...

Toy, I believe my loses are much more than I originally estimated. Still finding birds on the ground that cannot fly and a few that can hardly fly. All these birds are at or past their fledging date. What is really telling is that in the past I would have maybe 100-125 baby birds returning to their ...