William Bagwell wrote:Have to admire the incredible persistence of purple martin enthusiasts. (In both forums) Some of those people have spent years trying to attract their first colony.
We've had Purple Martin houses for years -- since the early 1980's -- and it is a challenge every year. According to the rules of play, the young Martins are supposed to return to where they were raised to build their own nests. If that were true, I would have approximately 10 gazillion Martins instead of the 12 to 20 pair. Each year the exising pairs raise 3 to 4 young each -- a total of 3 to 4 dozen young ones -- and the next year we tend to get 12 to 20 pair of Martins again. Sigh....
But, nonetheless, trying to keep varmits out of the Martin houses is a never ending battle. Last year, for the first time ever, a squirell tried to build a nest in one of the old wooden houses -- and totally destroyed the hole on the nest in the process. That scare the devel out of me when that thing came out of the nest when I was checking for babies. I think both of use nearly had a heart attack!
