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Post by HighCotton on Jun 8, 2020 14:13:12 GMT -5
Back some 50+ years ago, I helped my Grandpa build and maintain purple martin houses on the farm in NW Indiana.
As a kid, I was mesmerized by these cool birds. We used to sit for hours and drink Grandma's homemade mint tea and just quietly watch the avian aerobatics.
Until recently, I never really thought about putting up a house here on the southside of Indy. I guess I was assuming that I needed vast open areas like we had on the farm.
Now that I've cleared out a few trees, I have a few open spaces, some 60 feet in diameter, with a wide open space (almost 1/4 mile) to the west.
I'm doing a little more research before making a final decision and I figured I would post here for any input or feedback from y'all.
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Post by stevein on Jun 8, 2020 14:34:18 GMT -5
I have heard the best way to attract Martin's was to have a pond.
Our neighbor had one for years. Never had Martin's in it but tree swallows. I would get nesting pairs in my Bluebird 2nd houses and the swallows hate sparrows. They moved 2 years and took the Martin house. I have not had a successful hatch of Bluebirds since.
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Post by esshup on Jun 8, 2020 14:53:25 GMT -5
You have to work at keeping the English Sparrows and Starlings out of ht ehouse. Heath makes a nice aluminum house and a collapsible pole. The houses with the half circle entrance kjelps keep the starlings out. The house needs to be clean and from what I'm told it needs to be put up in the Spring right before the first scouts show up in teh area. My problem is I am not here enough to keep the starlings/sparrows out of the house. www.purplemartin.org/ |
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Post by beermaker on Jun 8, 2020 16:42:14 GMT -5
You have to work at keeping the English Sparrows and Starlings out of ht ehouse. Heath makes a nice aluminum house and a collapsible pole. The houses with the half circle entrance kjelps keep the starlings out. The house needs to be clean and from what I'm told it needs to be put up in the Spring right before the first scouts show up in teh area. My problem is I am not here enough to keep the starlings/sparrows out of the house. www.purplemartin.org/Sounds like a good excuse to buy a nice pellet gun. |
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Post by jman46151 on Jun 9, 2020 10:37:13 GMT -5
My wife's grandpa put some up last year. He had some trouble with the swallows for a while last year but this year I know some martins nested in the houses.
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Post by ms660 on Jun 9, 2020 23:14:36 GMT -5
Build it they will come in time. We had houses for them when I was a kid. Loved watching them dive-bomb the cat when he came near the houses. A couple times the cat almost won leaping up in the air trying to snag one, but the birds were to fast. Seemed like they helped with skeeter control.
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Post by saltydog on Jun 10, 2020 5:03:21 GMT -5
Like others have said, if you win the battle with the Sparrows and Grackles you have a good chance !
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2020 6:08:56 GMT -5
My brother built a big purple martin box four years ago. 1st year was nothing with no birds around at all. 2nd year some martins around, but that's it. Last year a few went in and investigated it a lot. This year a few showed up and close to having a pair, but not. He thinks the female chose so other place. Next year will be the one.
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Post by tenring on Jun 10, 2020 6:18:16 GMT -5
Many moons ago, my late father got into Purple Martins by building a Bird House by the book. Found out that the English Sparrows tried to take over and it was a constant battle of cleaning out the Sparrow nests. Setting up a ladder time and time again to clean out the Sparrows , he devised a way to cure the problem. He built a bird house according to specs he saw in pamphlet sent out by the Purple Martin Society. He could block the entrance to a Sparrow nest but soon found out more than half of the pockets were closed. He built a brand new bird house according to spec, put up a new pole of iron pipe with a rope and pulley system where he could lower the bird house, clean out the bad nests, leave the good nests alone and soon all the Sparrow nest were gone, and it was nothing but Martins. Also he learned to keep the house closed up until a specific time period when the good birds came back. If the Sparrows did sneak in after opening it up, it took but a couple of minutes to clean it out and put back up in the air. I got the job of guard duty, and when I would lower the house at a certain time when most Martins were out feeding, I would get "dive bombed" by any Martins that saw me around the house. Had to get used to that! Then some one put and article in the pamphlet that one could buy a ready built system to accomplish the same thing he spent several years figuring out. Guessing that something like that is still out there somewhere. After his new system was in, he claimed that he could sit out on the patio of an evening for the first time in years without having to fight the mosquitoes, the Martins took care of that.
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Post by esshup on Jun 10, 2020 12:26:43 GMT -5
I need to do that with my house, it's on an OLD light post from an old gas station that pivots in the center. I remember Dad and I getting it when I was a kid from a gas station that was being dismantle/ I remember getting it home was pretty interesting, as we couldn't pick it up and put it on the roof rack. He drove over it, picked up the pole in front of the car and I tied it to the bumper. Went to the rear of the car and did the same thing. Then once it was home he had some friends come over and they got it on top of the car, and he drove the 90 miles out to the lake house with it. Gosh, that had to be in the late 60's or early 70's. When the neighbors built a house close to the lot line, the martins abandoned the house and I moved it here, pole and all.
BUT pivoting it at the center to get it down doesn't bode well for any cleaning when birds are in it.......
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