It's been over 2 weeks since anyone has posted here. Just to try to get some activity, I'll post this. Purple martins, the largest member of the swallow family, live in South America about half the year. The other half they live in North America, coming here to raise a litter of young. MOST parts of North America get them. Their arrival date varies, warmer places get them earlier than colder places. Their arrival is NOT a sign of spring as we almost always have some very cold weather after they arrive. Here in Texas, some years they arrive in January, most years it's February and last year it was close to March. If you have martin houses you might attract martins. For pictures and housing info go to wwww.purplemartin.org . Martins are very desirable as they eat lots of bugs to include mosquitoes. So if you already have martin houses it's about time to clean them out and get ready. If you don't have a martin house, now is the time to be putting it up. What does this have to do with air guns? If you have martin houses, you'll have sparrows and starlings, which are undesirable. They do make a never ending supply of air gun targets.

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If you have martin houses, you'll have sparrows and starlings, which are undesirable. They do make a never ending supply of air gun targets.

You got right, LOVE the Martins but detest the noisy invasive species, a service is done by their shooting.

Carpetman speaks the truth, purple martins eat many skeeters,so many that they casued our dragon fly shooting to be severly reduced. We in AR are awaiting the arrival of the cowbird invasion. They are nest robbers and have reduced the population of cardnals and other song birds. My Diana M35 stands ready to engage the foe.

WOW was I worried when opening this one! I am a wildlife biologist and have had protection measures out for martins for years around nest trees etc while working on logging operations.

I HATE starlings! I use a 12 pump, and a 20 o/u for the large flocks and a 177 RWS Pantehr with 4-12 Leapers scope for singles. A friend brings his Merlin and Peregrine over for practice on starlings.....


Ladies and Gentlemen...hammer them!

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Originally posted by carpetman1:
If you have martin houses, you'll have sparrows and starlings, which are undesirable. They do make a never ending supply of air gun targets.

Wanna hear a good one???

The PA Game Commission, in its never-ending wisdom, deems it ILLEGAL to shoot ANY living wild critter with an airgun. Seriously............ the law does not even allow for the dispatching of English sparrows, starlings, rats, mice, skunks.................. NOTHING.

Go figger.

Strut 10--There is a rattlesnake here known as velvet tail that is protected. Yea right.

Besides shooting sparrows and starlings, I trap them. Most of my martin houses I have a means of trapping any that try to nest. For example on the houses I made of steel a magnet will stick to them. I take a piece of magnetic material like the magnets people stick on refrigerators or the larger piece that is used for stick on car signs. I cut a smaller opening in the magnet. Smaller than the opening on my martin house that martins will enter. A martin wont enter the smaller opening, but a sparrow will. Put a mousetrap inside. You'll catch em by the leg everytime. If it's a nesting pair of sparrows and you catch the female first, you'll have the male in very short order. If you catch male first, you may never catch the female or it may be a couple days.

Carpetman, that's a handy tip. I have no purple martin houses, but I do have a string of bluebird boxes and a larger number set out for tree swallows. House sparrows are a constant problem...I must try out your mousetrap idea.

In the same vein: If you have lots of cowbirds, one or two females may be shot and placed in plain view. They will attract and hold numbers of male cowbirds, and it can make for a fun afternoon of plinking.

jwm--Hope the mousetrap works for you. I'd be careful that a desired bird doesn't enter. Martins are so picky if the entrance hole is too small for their liking, they wont enter.

I just realized after posting that I can't use that idea. I'm fairly certain that any hole which will admit a house sparrow will also allow a bluebird or tree swallow to enter as well. I'll have to look up entrance hole sizes to confirm this before proceeding...but I have several months to think about it.

I may be forced to rely entirely on air rifle control...oh, well...it's a dirty job, but...

quote:

Originally posted by Strut10:

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
If you have martin houses, you'll have sparrows and starlings, which are undesirable. They do make a never ending supply of air gun targets.

Wanna hear a good one???

The PA Game Commission, in its never-ending wisdom, deems it ILLEGAL to shoot ANY living wild critter with an airgun. Seriously............ the law does not even allow for the dispatching of English sparrows, starlings, rats, mice, skunks.................. NOTHING.

Go figger.

That would stop me from shooting them.

My martins started coming in a couple weeks ago. They don't all arrive at once-trikle in. Shot and trapped a bunch of sparrows lately.
Anybody else getting martins?

A couple of years ago, there was a flock of starlings feeding in my yard. I got the 12 ga. Mosberg 500 and snuck out the front door. As the flock departed, I got of 3 quick shots and "harvested" at least 20 starlings.

Starlings, on occasion, land in the tree in front of my house. I hope to "bloody" my new air rifle on them.

quote:

Originally posted by Strut10:

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
If you have martin houses, you'll have sparrows and starlings, which are undesirable. They do make a never ending supply of air gun targets.

Wanna hear a good one???

The PA Game Commission, in its never-ending wisdom, deems it ILLEGAL to shoot ANY living wild critter with an airgun. Seriously............ the law does not even allow for the dispatching of English sparrows, starlings, rats, mice, skunks.................. NOTHING.

Go figger.

i guess i wouldn't tell him then.............................................

Got my first cowbird kill today. Hope to have a good season.

Dang it Carpetman1 you got me with your thread title. I was feeling quite indignant about the idea of shooting martins. We have martin houses on our farm and always look forward to the first "scouts" arriving (farm is in Saskatchewan so it will be a while yet).

Now I'm feeling embarrassed because we haven't cleaned the houses yet. Better get to it! And set out on a sparrow safari with an air rifle and a couple of the barn cats.