Purple Martin Association of the Dakotas

Caroline

I am in Crookston on the northside, east of you on Hwy 2 in MN. I am at 3 and holding. Sparrows are trying to take over my site today. More should arrive today and tomorrow with east and south winds. Shouldn't be long.

Al

Had an ASYF show at 4:30 the same day. She wasn't from my colony because she couldn't figure out SREH holes. There should be lots of young from several years past added to the area. My colony has stabilized at about 65 pair for about 4 years. I raised about a thousand young in that time frame. Hope ...

Arrived at 12:01 PM very cold looking. Lowered house and opened all cavities on T-14 for him, put out mealworms on feeder. I expect more tomorrow with SE winds.

Jerome, I am not negative but hopeful that other P.M. lovers have the dedication to keep their housing maintained even if no birds show up for some years. Before my current colony got started again after abandonment / disease it took 6 years to restart it. After the first year's success and a old co...

67 pair 324 eggs 268 hatched 259 will fledge (224 to date) Low egg hatch was caused by extreme cold weather early this season. A few renested. One nest of 6 was reared by lone male ASY and 4 fledged this morning, 2 of those young were found on the ground after being banded. One was dead and other ba...

Jerome, I currently have 68 active nests with 318 eggs laid, 117 hatched and 2 chicks at 23 days old that are getting close to fledging. I had an influx of about 20 SYM's raising hell yesterday and hope they leave soon! So far these are the best numbers for this colony yet. The numbers may still ris...

I will give you MY opinions to the questions you have raised. I feel a lot of the birds that don't stay are heading further north and west like Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. I fledged around 250 last year. I have slightly more ASY's than last year. Considering normal attrition losses of adults and horr...

Had 31 eggs last Monday. Last year had 7 pair nest in gourds on rack. This year there are currently 16 pair. More SY's arrive daily and most are gone next day. Caught a SY in my Troyer S&S house trap yesterday, usually get a few in the trap every year. The trap is under trees near my house. I be...

Several more SY's yesterday and today, around 20 or more everything is almost full except for the 32 gourd Gemini rack (about 1/3 full now). If this keeps up I could run out of space, but several pairs usually move on after a week or so.

Al

A few new ASY PM's arrived along with about 10 SY's both M & F, all except one checking for unoccupied cavities. I had expected this to happen when winds switched to SE. New landlords should be watching for activity in the next couple of weeks as more return to the area. I had 5 eggs laid as of ...