I need to check on mine today Gary. My male is fairly skittish, and he like to do a big "fly in your face to intimidate you" kinda thing. I never get bombed by the birds in my yard, and I think it's because I am out there so much. This particular male though is skittish, and it really worries him for me to actually touch his box! He is fine as long as I don't touch it. :o) I may take my step stool and an umbrella out so that it's easier on him and me!! I will let you know. Mine should be hatched out by today if all is going well.~~Angie

Oh Kenn.they are so very very beautiful. My heart sang and my face smiled as I took them in with my eyes. My favorite birds. My current pair are on nest #3, and they are feeding hatchlings. Interestingly, they chose a different house for each nesting, even though I remove old nests as soon as babies fledge. I guess they wanted to try them all out and find out what they liked best. They have just now been at my window feeder taking sunflower chips as I look at your post. :o)

Great shots Kenn! I am still wondering if our Blues here in our yard will nest again. It is kinda late for here in WI but they only had one nesting as they were way behind the other Blues in the area. They maybe had a failed first nesting elsewhere. It has been a week today since they fledged, I have noticed Dad keeping an eye on the nestbox, a wren was checking it out and he chased it away. I haven't seen the babies come into the backyard yet though, they are keeping them in the woodsy area yet. One of our Blues at the park is on their second nesting, the four eggs just hatched day before yesterday. The other pair down there I "think" chose not to do a second nesting, either that or they found a natural cavity as I see them enough down there but they haven't started another nest in any of the empty nestboxes. Donna

Lydia 1959...As far as it's known, from decades of research by the PMCA and other organizations, the Purple Martins in the eastern half of the U.S. nest only in man-made cavities, and near human activity. Since the times before Columbus they have "imprinted" on humans. The eastern Native Americans lured them to their villages and gardens by setting natural gourds on sticks and dead trees. They knew when the Purple Martins were near, the flying insects were kept at bay. There is a small scattering of PMs on the west coast, and they seem to be nesting in single family groups around piers. There was a lot of excitement when a colony was discovered nesting in drainage pipes under highway overpasses around the Sacramento area. Still, for the vase majority of the Purple Martins, and the entire eastern population, it's man made housing. You can see the problem since fewer and fewer people are offering, and safely managing, housing for them. The PMs, along with our native blue birds, started declining in the 1950s and were fast approaching endangered status. The main causes were lack of housing being offered to them, loss of wooden fence posts in the case of the blue birds, and the explosion of the imported, non-native English House Sparrow that will kill/destroy any cavity nester, its eggs and its chicks, that it can find...PMs, bluebirds, chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches, etc. all fall prey to these non-natives. So, loss of habitat, explosive numbers of non-native competitors, and a lack of well-managed housing not being offered is the main culprits of the decline of our native cavity nesters. I wish you could come visit. I sit under the feeder tree each morning with my tea and listen to the beautiful chatter, chortles, and songs of the PMs. They're here for such a short time, but I try to enjoy them enough to last the rest of the year. They travel to and from southern Brazil each year to raise their families. They come back to the same colony each year. They are magical!