Hi Caroline!

It's been a crazy season so far! I saw my first scout on 2/23 (almost a week early) and then they vanished. It was so cold here, just like the rest of the US. I started noticing them coming back early March. I'm up to about 60 pair now, with the sub adults soon to arrive. I have space for 108 pair.

While they've been here, we've seen some wacky temperature swings. I thought I might have had a couple caught in the gourd due to wing entrapment but they all wiggled out. When it gets cold, they tend to congregate in one gourd for warmth.

My starling and sparrow fight is in full force. Nabbed two starlings and only a few left. There are 5 that pester my housing. The sparrows are just never ending but I've got my trap out.

I hope this year is another successful martin season for you!

Dee

Just went and listened to their adorale noises. YouTube. Anyone else wants to hear...

Here is a link that might be useful: happy talking Purple Martins

108 pair! Wow. My 16 gourds run me ragged! Do you use pre-nests?

I've got two nest box traps working right now on the early HOSPs.

Do you use the clinger entrances; the ones with the curved "lip" at the top both inside and out? I'm leary of them because of the wing entrapment.

Most of the forums say I'm mistaken, but I truly believe the martins here in the north end of their range are slightly bigger than the norm. Mine simply cannot navigate the starling resistant crescent entrances unless I enlarge them. Thankfully, starlings are not a problem in my area; they nest earlier than the martins here. In 11 years I've had only one to think she was going to nest in one of my gourds.

I have a couple of new tunnels I'm adding to some Bo-11 gourds - after I take a dremel tool to them to remove the "lips."

Hopefully by August, or as soon as this season is over, I'll be putting up a Gemini II rack; then I can offer 24-32 gourds. I'm sure that will be the absolute max I can monitor and manage.

I don't use pre-nests. I let them re-establish each year. We're pretty successful. I don't do nest checks or tracking of growth though; I'm not a super thorough landlord. I have never supplemental fed. I simply provide housing, protect them from predators, water them in the heat, lower pre-storm etc. I could never keep up with that many if I did all the stuff some landlords do.

Last year, I lost a few pinkies to storms, one youngster to a hawk and one to a balloon string. I've successfully returned jumpers, fledged a couple that needed some coaching and talk to them daily. My birds know when to raise an alarm and get me outside; it's pretty strange how we work together to scare off a hawk.

We use S&K BO-9s with tunnel entrances for all but one rack, which is the "apartment house". No clingers. All have starling resistant crescent entrances. Never had wing entrapment. This year, I have a starling that's breached the crescent entrance on the apartment house....me and my pellet gun are waiting for the right opportunity.

This is our 7th year as landlords. Started out with 36 gourds and had to really expand 2 years ago after my neighbor passed away and the house was sold. New neighbors didn't want the housing so we took over their part of the colony. We could add another 78 and still be full. This summer, we'll see how we do with 108 and decide upon expansion plans from there.

Well, I think you're a "Super Thorough Landlord!"

I totally agree about not trying to supplemental feed. It would take thousands of live crickets to keep your colony alive for even a day or two - and that's without chicks.

There's no way I could afford large live insects on the scale to even feed a small colony. I couldn't even find them; the local pet shop, 40+ miles away, never has more than a few dozen crickets at a time. And they would all be wasted until I could flip enough crickets to have them catch on that the bugs were "flying insects." I firmly believe it's a no-win situation.

I won't be here forever. I may move...on or up... either way, what would become of my colony if they started coming back earlier and earlier, before their food source was here, expecting me to fill in the gap - and I wasn't here? They'd starve.

I do make cozy, well-packed pre-nests, mainly because I have such a few gourds. I also use Seven dust so they can lose any parasites before nest building begins. When they first arrive we nearly always have a few days of very cold and rain or snow. I like to think of them finally arriving, cold and tired, and zooming into their gourds with soft, warm, nests ready to burrow into.

I've seen them shiver through four days of cold and rain/snow. They usually leave and go south a bit to find food and come back in force a few days later. I've never had a dead adult in a gourd so I know they leave before they starve. Nature is a pretty smart cookie!

Isn't it great how they talk to us! Mine have taught me the "hawk scream." I come out like a demented banshee, yelling, throwing rocks, waving a broom around, whatever. The martins continue their attack and don't even notice me; I'm just another bird fighting off the attacker. The neighbors no longer pay any attention to my antics, either!

I do try to protect them from predators, Cooper's Hawks being the worst beast, provide mister/sprinkler in the heat, and lower pre-storm. I do a walk around the rack every day and I mess with them constantly.

As soon after their arrival that it's warm enough that I know they are eating, I lower the rack nearly daily and open the gourds. I want them to know from the beginning I'll be in their gourds. By they time they have eggs or chicks, they are so use to my "help" that they hardly bother to fly off.

Do you belong to any of the PM forums?

Now I'm all fired up for my birdies; gotta go hang some more gourds.

If/when we upgrade our poles so we can lower with ease, I'll probably do nest checks every day. I have to come into a lot of money to do that....but I want to. I want to make maintenance easier.

Funny story; last year, we put small handfuls of cedar shavings in the gourds and raised them up. Pre-emptive bug control plus maybe pre-nest. I'm allergic to pine so no pine needles for me! Any way, I had a female that totally did not appreciate it. I was walking around the gourds (like I do every day) and heard this racket from one gourd.....a muffled chee-chee-chee, scratch-scratch-scratch, chee-chee-chee. All of the sudden *poof* out comes a bunch of cedar shavings....then back to the hollering and scratching. Turns out, Ms. Martin didn't appreciate the state the gourd was in and was cleaning house....complaining all the way! You know she had on her little head scarf and was just cleaning furiously! I wish I had video taped it.

I'm on FB groups PMCA, Purple Martin Research and Purple Martin Landlords of TN. I probably cruise the PMCA forums from time to time but not so much.

Here's a picture of my colony from when we only had four racks in 2012 and were using natural gourds (we now have nine for 108 cavities - I'll get a picture over the weekend so you can see the difference). You can see my neighbor's houses in the background (those are now gone, which is why we have so many gourds now!).

What is the best way to get started with gourds or condos?

Sid

Sid,

There are so many things to tell you.....and some things that would need to be known to get you on your way.

Location is pretty important. Martins like housing that is near, but not too close, to people. They also like housing that is not too close to trees. The better line of site they have, the better they can monitor and evade predators. Proximity to water is a plus but not a necessity.

Martins prefer natural gourds (but they don't last more than 2-3 seasons) but artificial housing is fine. S&K makes good gourds and other housing but their poles leave lot to be desired.

The PMCA website has a great deal of information including a shop where you can buy quality poles/racks/predator guards and a forum where you can discuss all things PM. I'm providing a link to that website here and strongly suggest it as the place to get all your questions answered.

I was very lucky. We moved next door to an established colony so all I had to do to attract martins was to put up housing. We started our first year with natural gourds and immediately had adults migrate to our housing (way full at the other house). Some other folks need to play martin "songs" to attract them. Read through the FAQs and browse the PMCA forum for a lot more information than I can provide!

Good luck and thanks for your interest!

Here is a link that might be useful: Purple Martin Conservation Association

Dees, thanks for the info, I have a lot of reading to do. I live in the back of a country subdivision, dry retention pond behind our house, I will post a pick tomorrow.

Thanks again,
Sid

What an interesting hobby! You girls should give tours. :)

I look forward to their return and reading about them.

This is just fascinating. What happens if there isn't enough housing for all your guests? Do they go to trees? What if a person just stopped offering the housing. Would the birds be in trouble? Do you have the same birds every year or different ones?

Socks, I'll also refer you to the link I posted earlier. There's so much information at the PMCA site that you may enjoy reading.

Purple Martins have the unusual distinction of relying upon man made housing for safety while breeding. If there's not enough housing in one colony, they'll search for another place. If my housing were to be destroyed and not replaced, they would search for another but would come back here first to see if housing was available. If they didn't have housing, they would find shelter in trees but would not breed.

Once breeding is over and the young ones have fledged, they will start to gather in large groups called "roosts" and prepare for migration. The smaller roosts will meet up with larger groups to form "super roosts" and these are visible from radar! The roosts are generally in trees and they gather for the night.

As far as the same birds returning year to year, I can't prove it with my little colony but I do recognize certain birds from year to year. The only way to really prove that is by banding, but you have to be certified to band birds. There are couples that prefer certain housing units over another. We proved that this year by only opening the newer housing first. They kept on checking out the older ones and the minute we opened them, they swooped in and made themselves at home. The young birds (SY) will come back to where they hatched. If they find housing, they will settle in. If not, they'll search nearby.

Here's a picture of my current 108 unit set up. Pay no attention to that leaning pole....it's been up for a while!

Ah, The Leaning Tower of Purple. Nice! I like how open it is, gives them a good view when entering/leaving. Good setup.

Yeah...leaning tower is right! It got bent in a storm. There are three tri-tel poles (three sectioned, telescoping) that need to be replaced.

If you look carefully in the picture, you can see the large pond (5 acres) across the street. They're playing in that all day and gather mud to build their nest cups.

Behind the house is a large field with a stand of trees. While they do have a great line of sight, the predators use the house and the trees to their advantage. I have a particularly persistent Sharp Shinned Hawk bothering the kids this year.

At my house in Norman, Ok. we had families of Purple Martins that came every single year into our chimney and had their babies. They made the nest right over the dampener so we could hear them very clearly from in the house. I always worried about how the babies would be able to fly straight up and out of that chimney but they did it every year. After they were gone we would open up the dampener and clean out the mess never ever found any dead ones so apparently they were very successful.
Every evening we loved to sit out by the pool and watch them swarm around snatching up the mosquitoes and bugs .

I often wonder if the new owners had them come back to the chimney. I did tell them to expect them. We also had a red headed wood pecker living in one side of our attic and on the other side we had a yellow head wood pecker living in the attic. The attic was divided into 2 separate sections. If we needed to pull down the stairs and go into the attic the wood pecker would be clinging to the side wall near the exit hole. Never realized how big they were till you see one up close and personal.

I would really worry about having Purple Martins here because there are so many hawks living here in all these big trees. I had one land on my roof and try to swoop into the atrium to get at my little bitty doggy. Poor baby was shivering and hiding under a plant stand.

Thank you all for doing such wonderful jobs with the Purple Martins that is very admirable work.

So interesting to read about these birds and their houses.

Yes, thank you dees for all the explanation.