Purple Martins are a migratory species.    The Martins travel from South America to North America every year.   Avid enthusiasts mark the beginning of Spring with their arrival and actively particiapate in a "Pruple Martin Watch" communicating through phone calls, emails, and news letters the annual arrival and nesting

 NESTING and HOUSING.     This is where you and Frank Prekup come in to the picture. Two basic types are the gourd and the man-made housing that Frank Prekup builds and maintains. Frank's houses facilitate many of the important features to maintain a Martin colony, and he also grows gourds for them. One advantage of a man made house is the ability to clean it out every year. Parasites such as lice, blowflies, and mites invade the nests and will cause problems. Removing the old nest every year will prevent this infestation. Apparently using a little cedar shavings will also help control this problem. Also suggested is the placing of diatomaceous earth around the outside perimeter of the nest. The building of a house should have in its design predator prevention. The rooms should be deep enough so that owls cannot reach in, and there should be many rooms, often up to 12 and more is not uncommon. The Martins enjoy having lots of their kind around, and don't mind going 'condo!' But if the rooms are to be large as they should be, having many rooms will entail quite a large and heavy structure. A suggestion is to have another house and use hanging gourds. I'll leave the specifics to the pro's like Frank, and you can find more about different designs in the library and the internet.

Arrival times for the Purple Martins  ranges from mid March to mid April, sightings in Hampton, Virginia, and the Midwest, are around March 19th; and areas in the Midwest such as Montreal are around April 17th, and Tonawanda (New York) April 27th. This has to do with the ambient air temperatures and the particulars of each season.