That's great news...How about some pictures.

Way cool. Build it and they will come!

I think we had a flock of them in our backyard yesterday. They were black with blue shiny heads. They were about the size of a skinny pigeon. Think that is what we had?

Janie, I'm not there, of course, but you probably had grackles. Purple Martins hardly ever, nearly never, land on the ground. They only eat "on the wing;" they eat a variety of flying insects.

You will see them at nesting time picking up sticks, pine needles, and such for nesting. And sometimes, right before egg laying, the hens will pick at sand or egg shells on the ground.

Were your birds feeding, poking the ground with their beaks, etc? That would be grackle behavior.

Here's a Grackle, notice the bright eyes! They have long, strong legs, and strong, long beaks.

And a male Purple Martin, short wide beak, short tail, hardly ever seen on the ground.

Grackles have long graceful tails, Purple Martins have stubby tails.

We have tons of grackles around here!

Yea for the birds and eggs!

I would love to have some purple martins. What kind of gourds do you use? Do you grow the gourds yourself? How do you make the gourds into nesting gourds? Oh, I am just full of questions. This is so exciting !! I am so happy you are going to be a grandmartinmama. (I just made that up in case you thought that was a real word.)

Helen

Yep, I think they were Grakles! We have never seen them before. Eric had just finished cutting the grass and I had thrown a couple slices of bread out. The Grakles were chasing off the wren (?) and having a great time with their food find! Thanks for finding the pictures.

HelenColby...if you send me your email address, I will 'talk gourds' and Purplel Martins until you're ready to shove a gourd in my mouth to hush me! LOL

I have mostly 'Super Gourds,' a manmade gourd from the PMCA. I also have a few natural gourds which I've modified by adding tunneled and porched entrances, access ports for monitoring the chicks and cleaning out the old nests, and reinforced, lined hanging holes to keep the rain from seeping into the nest.

I'll be happy to hear from you!

Check out the "Forum Link" on this PMCA site for a wealth of information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Purple Martin Conservation Association

How fun! We will of course be waiting for pics of the little ones!

I *hate* grackles! They are constantly messing with Uncle Gene's feeder at the nursing home! Scare off the little birds and pick on the doves! Ugly buggers!

I would love to have purple martins. We have enough open pasture land for the gourds, but what I fear is they would harm or run off my hummingbirds. I have a good many rthummers coming back every year and don't want to do anything to disturb them. I do wish though, that I could have Purple Martins.

Caroline, I checked my nesting Purple Martins out today. I counted at least 9 PM's. I have 18 eggs. Two pods have four, and two pods have 5. Here's the set up I have at the river/cabin.

Rthummer. Purple Martins won't bother your hummingbirds at all. I have both. I also have Eastern Bluebirds, and Tree Swallows. They all get along fine.
Leslie

Grammahony, thanks for the information. DH has wanted some P.M. also. We someway attracted Eastern Bluebirds and Blue Buntings. I have fruit trees, grape vines, and muscadine vines, but we cannot afford to feed the Eastern Blue Birds dried worms. We are feeding enough critters as it is around here. (cows, horses, dogs, some birds, pond fish and the list goes on)

Bluebirds have lived for years without humans feeding them mealworms. That's what I feed them anyway, when I do feed them. (Never give a Bluebird earth worms. They can't tolerate them.) Also, don't use an insecticide on your lawn. The Bluebirds are ground feeders on bugs, and they'll eat them, and/or feed their babies with poisoned bugs, and they'll both die.
Leslie

How exciting to watch. No purple martins here, but a robin has built a nest under my deck. The eggs hatched earlier this week. You can just see their wide open little beaks over the top of the nest.

Caroline, how exciting! I always look for and check your postings of PM goings-on.

Caroline, I love hearing about and seeing your purple martins. Congratulations on your 10 little surprises.

I don't have enough clear space for them where we live now and I left the PM house at our other home for the new owners to enjoy. I left them complete instructions too. :) Last Friday a friend and I rode by my old house and I saw the house still there. I hope it is being cleaned out properly each year to get some return guests.

I have plenty of bluebirds coming to the feeder here, but so far this year none of them have gone to the nesting box. They looked a couple of times, but didn't build a nest. The area where I have it has grown up so much. I plan to move it in the next few days to an area that isn't so close to bushes and trees. I hope that will do the trick. It's the first time in many years we haven't had baby blue birds in our nesting box. Sparrows started building nests in it a couple of times, but I ripped them right out as soon as I noticed them.

That's great to hear! Control the non-native EHSs and you'll get Blue Birds, or Tree Swallows, or Chickadees, or Nuthatches, or...any of the other native cavity-nesting lovelies. Did you know EUHSs are the main culprit in the near extinction of the native BBs and Purple Martins? Thanks to good "landlords," they're slowly coming back.

My friend has had a pair of BBs raise three clutches a season for the past three years in her small suburban back yard in Delaware. The poor blue birds are desperate for housing. She didn't think she'd attract even one pair. I had more confidence in her birding skills and wasn't the least bit surprised at her successful fledge rates! LOL

Each year she has at least two pairs of BBs and one pair of Tree Swallows. This year she also discovered nesting robins, cardinals, and house finches on her little property! She's planted the shrubs and areas these birds love. She added fresh water that's always available and she's in the bird business.

I've had "fly by" attacks of bluebirds the past four springs. They zoom by my houses (set up in "perfect" BB habitat, LOL, with water, supplelmental treats, and not an EHSs in sight, and they still haven't built a nest. This year they did actually land on the box, so I'm considering that a step in the right direction.

I'll keep trying; in fact DH set up another house for me in our neighbors' empty field/yard. (With their blessings, of course!)

I do have nesting tree swallows and a pair of chickadees are seriously considering one of the nest boxes in the front yard.