Purple Martin Association of the Dakotas

The "fountain rack" and the arched arms with left-, right-, or forward-pointing hanging bends are made by S&K. I think I bought the 8-arm rack in 2004-2005. By the time we moved to Larimore in 2007, they had developed an extra hub attachment that allowed me to hang 8 more gourds on the...

Well you can't tell it by this photo, but there are now a few more birds at my site. I see four here, (one is barely peeking out of Gourd 4) but three flushed when I took the photo and I know there were some in the gourds on the back. The high heat and wind yesterday did not to them any favors. We m...

Congratulations! I'm so happy they've found their way home to you. There are far fewer numbers here. I know there are eight birds hanging around my gourds right now. There may be more, but the most I've seen at once is eight. They are playing musical gourds between all the gourds with porches. I've ...

Hi Jerome. The two hubs that hold the arms are at the very top and very bottom of the tube that fits over the pole. There's no way to spread them further apart. I think this rack was made for the BO-11 gourds that are not as tall as my Super Gourds, Excluders, and naturals. Wes just got home; I'm go...

I need a "proper" - 3/8" round, metal - arm to hang a horizontal gourd. Since my second year with PMs, 2004, I've used an S&K Fountain rack with 3/8" square, steel arms. The arms arch upward and the gourds hang from an L-bend at the end of the arm. However, if you put Super G...

Perry, I thought it was odd you hadn't posted about PM arrivals yet. Your birds have always arrived before mine here in Larimore, and a couple of the Canadian landlords always have birds before me. It feels so cold with the hard winds blowing. Even though it's warm enough for them to feed, I don't k...

I don't care what my dependable veterinarian says, the dogs need to start their flea and tick medication earlier than June. We always dose our boys beginning April 15. Wes takes them out in the open fields, tree rows, empty fields, etc. several times a week, year round. He came in from a field out b...

I have a nest box set up about 40' from the PM pole as part of the Tree Swallow/Blue Bird/Purple Martin protocol - which truly works by the way. About 10 a.m. today I heard hysterical chattering and saw a lot of white chest flashes and frenzied flying. Yes! It was the Tree Swallows, seven or eight o...

The pole is really set up square and straight. My camera, or the operator behind it, makes the pole to appear to be leaning. I saw two ASYs, male and female, go into Gourd 2 today. A second female tried to go in with them, but female #1 came at her fast and furious. Female #2 moved down to Gourd 4....

Here's my little set up. Yes, it's in the front yard; that was the only place where I could circumvent the huge trees. I'm fortunate that my neighbors in every direction enjoy the Purple Martins, too - just not enough to set up their own colonies! We could line both sides of the block with them! I ...