Who has Purple Martins?

Who has Purple Martins nesting in their yards? We have had Scouts but none are staying yet. I am anxious to have them as my guests again this summer. I love to watch their acrobatic flights!

I'm new to birding...but just freshly learned that Purple Martin will be in our area from March through August. I was eyeing a Martin birdhouse pretty intensely while I was at the nursery today. I'll stand by and wait for others responses and learn, if that is okay?

The gourds work much better. I purchased mine from the original purple martin website. Some gourds are much better than others. The ones I have - have a screw on lid that you unscrew and clean out. It makes cleaning the gourds out much easier. I have both gourds and the metal houses. We had to redo our metal houses. It was a 12 room house and we later learned the houses were too small. So we had to make them into 6 rooms instead of 12. Please do some research before you buy a house. They are a pretty big investment and if you don't get the right stuff, you may not have any birds.
I have poles with pulley ropes where you can pull the gourds/houses down check out what's going on and pull it back up. House sparrows love, love, love our purple martin houses. So, we have to monitor the houses.
This is the set up I have: http://purplemartin.org/shop/index.php?cPath=1_45?1&osCsid=f9946bc7591fe8c92728c6f508e1a89e
I really like it much better than the metal houses. The metal houses also get hotter.
You also have to be careful where you put your houses. They have to have a clear "fly way". http://www.purplemartin.org/ This will give you lot of information.
You can certainly use the houses also. I see many out there with birds in them. I have both gourds and metal houses. The birds use both of them. Being able to pull the down and monitor them is a nice feature.

Hi birder, Thanks for the links! I'll put that second one in our Sticky. :-)

Thank you Birder, oh now I've more reading to do and prepare myself ...errrr prepare for my little feathered friends. lol.

Oh shoot...that is out of my budget I guess.

I didn't realize they are so expensive. :-(

pelletory: You are more than welcome. I'm all for promoting bird conservation. We continue to take their natural habitat so it's the best we can do to offer them housing and plants for food.
As you know, the purple martins followed the American Indians when they moved from place to place. The Indians would carry their gourds on sticks and the birds would follow them. So interesting! It was a symbiotic relationship. They offered the birds homes, and the birds kept down the insect population. That is one reason why the purple martins like the gourds so well.

Lilylove: I wish you much success in inviting purple martins to your home. They are wonderful guests and so very entertaining. It took us three years and moving the gourds/houses before we were lucky enough to have them. Each year, the number of residents grows. :)
We put cooked dried egg shells around the gourds/houses each spring. I start saving egg shells in February. You have to cook the shells in the oven because eggs can carry bacteria easily. Then crush them finely and scatter heavily on the ground. It encourages them to come to your homes and they see them from afar. They eat the egg shells and the shells in turn help "grind" up their food and gives them calcium.

Yes, a set up can be quite an investment. We went out on a limb to set up purple martin houses. They sure give us a lot of pleasure and I feel I am helping them out.
I watched the birds perform their acrobatic flying a couple of summers before I bought my set up. They fly really high up in the air and really swoop down. And, they constantly talk to each other like their cheering each other on. Their chatter is quite pleasant.
Well, I hope you consider inviting the purple martins to your yard. You could start out small with one or two gourds and add to it. If you join the purple martin society, you get a discount on the homes. That is what I did.

Thanks for the info birder!

Thanks Birder, interesting info. Thanks for the links.

:)

My husband and I are making our first attempt at being landlords also. We recycled a house and modified it to have larger compartments, added starling resistant holes and access ports and bought an aluminum telescoping pole with 6 gourds & a decoy. We have about $200 invested. We only got it up a few days ago, but a local expert told me that late March or April should be okay for a new nesting site. Let's hope he's right. If not, I guess we'll be waiting until next year.

Did you decide on a house, Lily_love?

Wow that looks great Missy!

Missy, I have yet decided on the house. Oh how I love yours. I spoke with a neighbor that host purple Martins and Eastern Blue Birds. She told me that the 1st year she has a pair of Martins. She's learned that the Martins' offspring will return to their birdplace and nest subsequently year. Thus now she has many of them. She also said that they're here from Feb. through August.

She has Blue birds as well, they're constructing their nests at present, but no eggs seen yet. She talked about putting pradators guards and such. I'm collecting as much helpful info. as I can before I invest in a house (or few more) that's safe for the little ones.

Yes, the purple martins return every year and the group gets larger. We started with two and last year (2nd year) we had thirteen.
Yesterday, while I was working in my yard, the purple martins flew around and did all their chattering. I thought they would settle down, but did not. They are not here today. I think they will be back.
Purple Martins that were juveniles will look for a new house and start in a new area. They come later.