Do the birds not mind you "messing" with their homes? What a wonderful hobby you have and how grateful your birds must be to you!

Sjerin, I try to have all the gourds hung by April 15; the birds usually arrive around or after the 23rd. I make pre-nests with cedar shavings and a light sprinkling of Sevin dust. That gets rid of any parasites they may have on them when they arrive. I close off all the entry holes with duct tape and do not open them until the PMs arrive. The biggest danger to the PMs, Tree Swallows (TS), Chickadees, Bluebirds (BB), Nuthatches, Woodpeckers - and all cavity nesters - is the non-native English House Sparrows and European Starlings. Thankfully the starlings nest (somewhere else) before the PMs arrive and have never shown interest in my gourds. I do have a starling nest box trap, just in case. In 13 years I've trapped exactly two starlings, and they were when we lived on the base. I do not allow English House Sparrows (HOSP) to nest anywhere near my birds. I trap - it is legal - year round. Because of this diligence I have very high fledge stats and seldom see a HOSP. Tree Swallows would like to nest in the gourds, but they are not colony birds. One pair of TSs would claim all 15 gourds and not let another bird near them. They are also a protected native species, but their habits are easy to control and turn around to the PMs advantage. I set a Tree Swallow/Bluebird box 35 ft. from the PM rack. The TSs take to it and don't look at the PM gourds again. Since 35' is well within the range they protect from other TSs, they will not let another TS anywhere near the PMs. It's called the TS/BB/PM protocol. You can have all three species nesting in a 100' area; and not threatening one another simply by setting two BB boxes on either side of the PM pole, one 35' away and one 50' away in the opposite direction. I've never been lucky enough to attract a pair of Bluebirds, but "someday!" I always have a pair of TSs in the box, and sometimes a pair of chickadees! Fun2BHere - Some of the gourds do not have porches because I've not been able to get them all installed yet! LOL I hope to play "catch up" this winter and get more of the gourds, and some of my natural gourds (their favorites!) modified and more porches added. The birds love the porches; those gourds are the first claimed and the most vigorously protected. The ones lifting their wings are cleaning their feathers. They are rather ragged by the time all the young fledge. If you see them twisting their heads all around and into weird contortions, they are exposing the skin to the sun so any mites will crawl down to the chests or wings so they can groom them off. I use Sevin to control the mites in the nests, but they still pick them up. It's just part of bird life. I can't lower the rack anymore now until all the chicks fledge so they are on their own.

I did not know any of that about Purple Martins!! Congratulations on your full house(es)!! That is a lot of eggs to watch and a lot of baby birds coming up. Cool picture!! Thanks for sharing that. I had a late (to me) nesting of a pair of Carolina Chickadees. They had 3 youngsters and they have now flown the coop! Birdwatching is so much fun.

And now I interrupt the "end of the season" blues... ... to report about 20 Purple Martins are over my front yard and gourd rack right now. They are zooming around, soaring, circling, calling and chattering, and all-in-all being absolutely delightful. Even without grabbing the binoculars I could make out a few newly-fledged PMs bumbling along. I don't think these are "my" birds. They've been overhead for about an hour. Then they began dive-bombing and zooming by the gourds as fast as they could. After 15 minutes of that, two got brave enough to land and look inside a few of the gourds. Now there is a new fledge perched on the top pulley, as high up as he can get. He's chattering and bobbing, puffing up and looking all around in a very proprietorial way. Fledges all look the same, but I'm certain this is male. He's going to be a real (but delightful) pest next season as a SY, and an awesome beauty the next. Could he be the one to help produce my first 8-egg nest? It's August 13, three days past their latest departure date ever, and they are still being very good medicine.