Purple Martin Association of the Dakotas

Good to hear snow is disappearing. Bugs and temps above 50 will help.

Dave Nice gesture to try protect them from Cold. Have heard PM can perish in Adverse conditions. But, what if our intervention, interferes with Their Natural Defense system? For example; when TS arrive ahead of Their Forage, they move off! One spring TS returned 4 times before they Stayed! By than t...

The TV exposure was huge for the state. I also present at the Iowa State Fair next to the DNR building on martins in August. This gives us a great opportunity to reach word of mouth a variety of people spread over the whole state. Kids to 90 year olds see us at the fair. Last year we had near 70 peo...

Hi Jerome, I may have gone overboard years ago when I added removable and insertable ceramic heating box to vent into the back of my modified grandpa sytle metal houses to keep the martins warm during cold weather in early spring. It is hard to explain how it is set up but it really does keep them w...

The words snow and martins just don't ring. Nasty combination.

Two new state public martin housings went up last fall and our Iowa organization is hoping that we will get some SYs set up house this year. One of our members, who happens to be a park ranger was able to set up a huge public education martin site and renamed the lake Purple Martin Lake. This was on...

Slow in arriving. I had one on March 26th and as of April 14, I have 12 martins. I expect that the week of April 15 to 19, central Iowa will see a big push north with warmer weather in the forecast.

Temps have been cold at night, down to low 30's. Stretch of three days rain and windy during the day and cold at night. I buy around 7-10 pounds of frozen crickets each year from a local cricket farmer for my martins. I also scramble eggs and put them out on a raised platform feeding tray. I soak th...

I have 7 martins at my colony in central Iowa as of April 9. The Minnesota and South Dakota purple pins are encouraging for the northern states. the cold and snow are the devil when it comes to martins. Covers the ground and halts bug activity. Time for the scrambled eggs and crickets and mealworms....

Hey everyone up north. Just wanted to extend the big news about our Iowa website updates. We now have increased capabilities, software and user friendly options and links. We welcome anyone to join our organization, regardless of what state you are from. We are all of the same purple mold, martin pe...