Purple Martin Forum

The Ontario Purple Martin Association is hosting the first ever Ontario Purple MartinFest !!!! :grin: We are excited to be having our first (of many, we hope!) Purple Martin Festival! Saturday, July 7, 2018, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM . (Rain or Shine) Colchester Harbour Park, 100 Jackson Street, Colc...

Our Quad Pod has been up for about 5 years at a local golf course. Today when nest checking I found a female martin, dead, hanging by her leg which was caught in the narrow space that runs vertically on each side of the porch where it adjoins the pod. I had difficulty getting her out - her leg was q...

What I used to glue the screen in place was an outside caulking called Mono Ultra, for outdoor applications - windows, doors, etc. Now it is probably 3 or 4 years since I did it, and I haven't made a point of looking to see if it is all still in place, but I haven't seen any wasps at all either. Thi...

We acquired 6 Trio Grandpa houses a few years ago from an old fellow who tried so hard to get martins but never did. He had these up on 2 separate poles, 3 houses on each, at about 16' in the air. He had seen wasps flying around, but didn't think too much of it until they took the structures down (b...

This is a good demo, and I wish all our colonies were close enough to a hose that we could use it to spray them out really well. (Our backyard colony is the only one where we can do that). I usually never wear a mask, but at the very least, from now on will take a spray bottle with me to dampen thin...

Hey Robbo, That's a great advertisement for a T14 that it is filled up already ! I know they are a wise housing choice in northern climates. Down here in SW Ontario we can still use the aluminum housing with pretty good success. Tearing out HOSP nests is OK until the martins have eggs, then retaliat...

Hi Chickadee. It is sad to find one that didn't make it despite our best efforts, but there are factors we can't know. Perhaps she was older; perhaps just was exhausted after migration, and couldn't regain strength. We lost several for that very reason, as far as I can guess. I know they starved, be...

Hi Carlton, I have not tried that, although I think several landlords from Alberta have done so. To me, scrambling in the microwave would be much quicker and easier than boiling eggs, espeically if having to cook up 2 or 3 dozen per day. But the nutrient value would be the same, I suppose. Perhaps s...

Hi, greasing the pole with vaseline or automotive grease will keep the ants out. But wanted to mention a caution about changing the nest. Mother bird makes a "nest bowl", the purpose of which is to keep eggs/nestlings confined to an area which she can cover and keep warm with her body. When we chang...

Hey John, Congratulations on getting your martins to accept eggs from the feeder tray. This is a major step and accomplishment. I agree with you that it is the worst spring since 2002, when all of our returning martins died from a May long-weekend cold snap. I vowed then that I would never go throug...

Martins definitely will consider nesting sites lower to the ground. One year we had two martin pairs in shepherd hooks which were situated below and between our gourd racks.

Know anyone with a hot tub? I was reminded of this several days ago when cleaning out a drawer. I found one of several lids I obtained a couple of years ago from someone with a hot tub. This lid EXACTLY fits a Big-Bo gourd (S&K). It is strong, opaque, and "free". Worth checking into if you know some...

Congratulations! Now you never need worry again - well, we always worry - but you know that you can help them survive and that they'll remember it now from year to year. That's pretty quick - 10 tosses ! With more and more people getting their birds onto supplemental feeding every year, I always tel...

Hi Matthew. Whereabouts in Ontario are you located ? I am from Essex County .... SW Ontario, close to Windsor. Have you checked the scout report in the last several years to see when anyone close to your location has posted scout arrivals? This may be helpful. We have an active purple martin club wh...

Hi Mitch. As Ed replied, tree swallows can eat a variety of berries as well as insects, so are not as vulnerable as martins when the weather is bad. We have had TS in our backyard almost as long as we've had martins, and after we had trained our martins to accept supplemental food, I began putting s...

The way I see it, it isn't much different from the millions of people that feed backyard birds with sunflower seeds and bird feeders. These birds have not, through decades of "supplemental feeding", changed their migration habits. Why would martins? But more to the point, I think, is the fact that m...

Hi Kathy and everyone. I have been away from forum activity for quite some time, but have been a "lurker", and so have kept up with what is going on. I am so impressed with your efforts on behalf of our precious martins, and am SO SO happy that you have jumped that first hurdle of getting them to fl...

Steve and Bob, I am so sorry to hear this - it is so disheartening. Why some people have so little regard, or I should say none, for wild creatures is beyond me. We SHARE this world, and as it goes, so will we. But thankfully, most people are not that way (I still have to believe that!) and so many ...

Hi John, thanks. I too am intrigued by this other possibility. The goal, I guess, in lieu of trapping, is to prevent the sparrows from breeding, with as little potential of retaliation as possible. I had heard of ‘addling’, but never by means of a cooking oil. (I know too of the powerful beak of the...

Hi Mike and John, and everyone, congratulations to all who have martins returning, it is such an exciting time of year! I’ve just recently been able to sign on to the forum again, and would like to clarify our “passive sparrow control”. In the past, I know that many times, the reaction has been that...