Purple Martin Forum

As long as the ponds keep warming up there should be some bug hatches. If not and still worried buy some crickets to try training to feed and eat after the haven't eaten for three days. I have had crickets in freezer from last year, some nutrition may be gone but if there hungary they may feed on th...

I see that Louise has told you all about the SmileAmazon already. I post this message before I looked at anything else. So I challange everyone even if you dont use Anazon yourself to send out them text message to everone else anyway. All it takes is you tell one of yore granddaughters about it and ...

Hi evryone, My name is Dick Doll from MN. Its been a lot of years since I posted anything on this forum. Used to be on hear on and off a bunch of years back. My old colony had 50 compartments, with 49 pairs the max ever. I was and am part of the MN Purple martin banding and GEO-Locator study. My old...

You can place young one back up in the nest with some success, if they were push or knock off by accident the first time they might stay. But if they jumped early by them selfs for what ever reason they will keep doing it. This was a bad year for jumpers at my site. I change all nest out at nine day...

That is true about the different color bands for the geo-locator study in Pa. they were asking for help because they didn't expect the Martins to return to the location they were banded at. And you have to retrieve the Geo from the martin to get the information. We installed 41 Geo-locatores on mart...

We put red bands on in MN, one leg has the Aluminum Federal band and the red band on the other leg. If it is a MN banded bird a little ways from the seam there will be a MN side ways then a gap with a alphabetical letter a gap followed by thee numbers. It is always interesting to get a report of som...

[quote="Gobbler T"My pot won't be watched as much in the next few weeks as turkey season is fixing to open and I'm also gona take a trip to Miami. Maybe when it's all said and done, I'll look up and realize I'm a landlord! :wink:[/quote] Gobbler T about the time my martins start to return in MN I to...

Thanks Louise I have use just the plane foam doves also in the past. A few times they have managed to have pulled them off there branches and carry them some ways before dropping them, all full of little puncture holes.

With this crazy weather and getting warmer early have you seen more martins coming through sooner. Has a lot of people experienced there martins coming back a lot early?. Just wondering because if so they might show up in MN early also and they have been coming back to early in the past already from...

[quote="Chriscreole"]I got a wind up Martin I can send ya, wind it up clamp it to a perch, it sings and flaps it's wings....maybe the real birds will get the hint and stay...or maybe not[/quote] Where did you find or purchase that flapping decoy from. I need something like that for later in my marti...

Wheat or pine straw if it get wet you should change it out. With that said there is a lot of variables and things to consider before you make them choices. I am using White pine straw because it is easily available to me an I do think it is one of the best choices there is. I have used wheat straw i...

In just a few day on June 25th the 9th annual MN MartinFest will be here in the West central part of the state. From the number of people that have Pre- register ( you don’t have to pre-register) for this year event, it looks like it should be a good group of visitors. There is going to be a great l...

Just wanted to post a little message, a lot of new Purple martins have just entered the State of MN in the past few days. So everyone has martins on there mind in MN so if you would like to learn more about martins or want to share your stories about them come to our MN Martinfest. This year it will...

I was changing out all of my super gourds to the tunnel entrance that can also be use as a trap last year, but decided not to install the tunnels on the remaining ones. This is the reason I changed my mind I know there great for protection and the martins love them but they are also dirty. What I me...

If you are getting days of 60 there has to be some kind of bugs hatching out around there for them to feed on.If you see them just sitting around there for a day or so with there wings drooping then its time to try and feed them. Its best to start with something like crickets first because it maybe ...

Only two of the eight birds I had on Sunday ate five crickets when I flung crickets past them the rest seem full and content on guarding the cavities they have chosen for this year. Even though most of the lakes just broke free of ice on them the martins are finding something to eat. But I’m ready f...

Last fall when I was reading band numbers at a local roost site I spotted a crippled female martin. Her toes were all twisted and bunched together that almost made a fist. So when sitting on the power wire she would rest her belly on it to stay balanced but she flew out and circle and landed with ou...

There are a couple of It is great to get your martins trained to accept crickets and or scrambled eggs. And after they have been trained usually there are some that will remember it year after year in the future if it is needed. But there are some draw backs to flinging crickets be very careful if y...

I have been doing digiscopeing for the last year my set up is a Nikon coolpix 5100 camera on a Nikon ED8200 fieldscope. I wanted it for reading the martin leg bands I though I could just take a bunch of pictures and hope the band was turned just right at the right time. It didn’t work like the way I...

Was wondering if there is any other information I could read on the geolocator other then what was printed in the Update Vol, 18(2) and 19,(3) Was there anything printed anywhere how your birds from Texas did last year. MN is going to do the geo study this year and they are going to release eight bi...