Has anyone seen any Purple Martins?

Made this Martin house in 1966. Got Martins the first year until I sold the house. Put the same Martin house up at the new house. Martins arrived the following spring. Came every year after that and in 1972 we had a freak rain storm that dumped lots of rain. This was in June and the Martin house was full of chicks and when I came in from work my wife said there's something wrong in the Martin house. She said it smelled terrible, so we drop the house for an inspection.
All the baby birds had died, probably drowned from all the water. I never had any birds after that. We bought several different Martin houses
and they would come and look and then leave. I told the wife the only way we would ever to have Martins was to sell this house and try in a new area. You sure miss them if you ever have them.
I disposed of that wooden Martin house. Hal

Gene

Gene

Make sure your houses are painted a bright color. They seam to like red the best but yellow works too.

Put them out away from trees (Martins HATE trees) and at least 12 feet off the ground.

Trouble we have here is Starlings killing the birds. They have "Starling extruders" you can add to the houses although Martins dont like them as well as the open holes.

Scouts will be arriving here soon I hope. I know there are less and less Martins ever year because the starlings are taking over.

My former co-worker has a pair of Pilated woodpeckers and they raised a pair of chicks every year. Hal

Martins respond to gourds better than anything. Sometimes if you have trouble attracting martins adding 4-6 gourds will do the trick. You can make them out of natural gourds, the bigger the better. But now you can buy a real good plastic gourd house, with access hole for cleaning for $10 or $12 each. The bought gourds also have an optional starling resistant entrance. I use .22 shorts on the starlins and sparrows. They also make a tape of the martins "dawn song", I have the tape, but not sure if it worked or not. I have about 40 pair each spring.

Gene

Those Starlings are SMART birds. If you shoot at them one time from a location and miss they will remember and be watching for you. You can even go there without a gun and some how they know it but if you have a gun they spot it right off. I use to take the screen off my bedroom window and shoot them thru the window where they couldnt tell where it was comminng from.

Those Starlings trap the Marins in the house and with that big long yellow beak of theirs peck them in the head til they kill them. One dead Martin and then the rest will usually leave.

Also had a chicken snake crawl up a metal pole one time. Now how he did that I will never know.

Gene