Anybody host Purple Martins, or want to? I have seed

I got into hosting Purple Martin birds some years ago when a buddy started me. He is over the bridge now, but his seed stock for growing his gourds lives on. These will make what I think are perfect shape. They grow like watermelons, and are low maintenance. Birds love them.

Anybody interested send me a PM. I usually send them free if a padded addressed stamped envelope is sent here. If you have land with a good open flyway near the house, and live in the migration path, and especially also an open area pond nearby, these add a lot to the activity. They migrate from Brazil. Their song is nice.

Last years migration. You can select the years to see the changes, and toggle the date to see the migration pattern. This data is from reports submitted by people witnessing the first bird. .

Learn more here:

https://purplemartin.org/forum/ Cool video at that website, and those are pin-oak leaves on top of the pine straw pre-nest material we put in. My birds like the live-oak tree leaves. The PMs like for there to be an oak tree nearby for leaves.

You can watch the migration here:

https://www.purplemartin.org/research/8/scout-arrival-study/

Purple Martins are about the biggest of the 7 kinds of swallows. I also have "bluebird boxes" around at 4' height, and get Tree Swallows in them, and Barn Swallows nesting on my porch. Bank swallows hang around in early fall after my residents have left, as part of their return migration from somewhere further north. I call it "swaller holler' for all the birds here in the summer. I keep about 60 martin gourds, and a dozen boxes. They eat... and feed their babies... flying insects. :yay:

My Mom told me the swallows aren't coming back to Capistrano anymore. Sad. Purple Martins are increasing the western side migration stream the last half dozen years that I have been watching, so west coast people have a chance to help.

Parts to a assemble the gourds come from:

https://store.skmfg.com/

Thanks for the info. I only knew about the Purple Martin houses that are like a bird apartment building, which are pretty cool. Nice to see they like the gourds, too. It's cool that you are keeping your buddy's tradition going!

We always have barn swallows start nests, we 'direct' them to okay spots to build a nest by blocking their love of doing that right above our doors. We use those ice cycle type things. Usually they are first, then the bank swallows show up for a while, they leave, eventually, and the barn swallows remain for a while.

The first year that we were here, when the bank swallows came in, it was by the thousands, absolutely covered the garage roof. Have not seen that many, since.

We love them for their bugging, watch them a lot. I also like them for 'training' my racers to stay off the house roof. Also, if there's a hawk, they'll zoom around the house, and over the racers' loft, which is a bit lower than the house, so the racers have a warning system for the direction that they can't see from the landing boards or roof of the loft. Not sure if the swallows are doing a warning, or leading the hawks to the racers, ha. Either way, it works.

So, how far north do these gourds thrive?

I have sent seeds to Canada (but won't again for the hassle). Start the plants inside like 'maters if you are up north. Like I said, they vine and grow like watermelons and cantalopes.

If you have and like barnies, you will love martins. I am getting a camera (I hope, everything is gone from stores) and can post up a tutorial for making and hanging the gourds.