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Originally Posted by Battle Axe
(Post 7174085)
One Amish neighbor has a Martin colony and even sells supplies. He is quite an expert on it and even has a telescope to watch them. Several years ago there was a cold snap after the birds had eggs that were hatching. There were no flying insects available and the babies started dying. So he ordered several pounds of flying tree crickets, hoping they would fly when released and feed his birds. But it was still too cold and the crickets would not fly. So the word was sent out and we all were over and hand tossed crickets, one at a time, into the air. The Martins quickly learned what we were doing. It was the strangest feeling to see this low flying bird line himself up with you. It's just like an A-10 fighter jet locking on a target. Then at the precise moment I was to underhand toss the cricket straight up. He always caught them and flew back to the nest. Next cricket please. I wore out my arm.:)
Purple Martins rely totally on humans for housing/nesting now. In many areas they also rely on us to provide food for them due to bad weather & lack of bugs in dry spells. They only eat flying insects. Insects do not fly below 50 degrees, during high winds or during rain. If a Purple Martin can not find enough food 3 days in a row they will become to weak to fly & die soon after. Some landlords have been able to get them to eat scrambled eggs, but too many eggs can cause bowel issues, so crickets or meal worms are best. I also provide crushed egg shells for them to eat. They not only provide grit, they provide them calcium. What many do not know is it's a Federal offence to interfer with any wild birds (other than European Sparrows & Starlings, which are not native & considered pests), especially when they have a nest. However due to declining numbers of Purple Martins in past years they allowed landlords to do nest checks, control pests, do nest changes to control insects, etc. The youth of today need to put down the cell phones/video games/etc & go outside & be educated about taking care of nature. If they are not I fear we may lose many of our wild birds & animals to progress, pesticides, etc. PMCA has a great site with all the info needed to learn about Purple Martins http://www.purplemartin.org/ |
That is so cool! We have a neighbor when I was little who had hand made birdhouse poles all over his back yard. It was wonderful to watch on summer evenings. Enjoy!
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Originally Posted by sparkys_mom
(Post 7174062)
An epic chase caught on film, a squirrel star is born from The Washington Post http://wapo.st/1clVpCT This is a fascinating peek at the extraordinary world of a grey squirrel. Spectacular! |
Where did you purchase or did you make your gourds? I want to put a feeder up this year.
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Lucky You. We have only had I family of purple martins in 8 yrs.
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They are awesome...Love your pictures..Thanks for sharing...
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Ooops. I see I already answered One Doxie Mom's post.
I went wordy with describing my modifications to the natural gourds and then deleted it. GranChris, I have natural gourds I purchased from Alabama (they won't grow here in our cold, short summers) The Super Gourds and Excluder Gourds come from the PMCA and/or Purple Martins-R-Us. You can Google for them. The naturals need to be 10"-12" in diameter; I've used larger. Senior Member - Have we "met" on some of the Purple Martin Forums? I belong to three. I think I'm "Caroline" on all of them. |
Feather 3: fantastic job! Is that your Macaw in your avatar? It's beautiful. My DGD has one named Lola Bird!
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Originally Posted by quiltjoey
(Post 7184369)
Feather 3: fantastic job! Is that your Macaw in your avatar? It's beautiful. My DGD has one named Lola Bird!
Yes that's my Macaw in my avatar. She was 2 years old when I got her. She had been abused :(. She is now 16. She's one amazing bird!! |
Love your purple martins! My mom always wanted them and put up gourds almost every year but we were never on their flyway. Makes me want to hang up some to see if we get any. But I don't think they will hang around the Gulf Coast.
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