My husband and I have been landlords for these sweeties for approx 8 years (though not all in one place). We had a 2 year break when we moved to LA and couldn't put up a house. About 5 years, we had purple martins in our backyard in Louisiana and now, in Texas, we've had a box for about 3 years. Our first siting of our colony was yesterday, 20 Feb and they reclaimed their house. We had a colony the same year we put the house up and we did that late in the season. I'll be posting pics and links when I get a chance.

we have 3 pair in our house. already had to kick out a sparrow. the sparrow had an egg so we carefully moved the entire nest to a new site but they decided to move back into the martin box and started rebuilding their nest. will have to go up there again. martin housing should only have martin colonies. sparrows will hound the martins for space and sometimes this causes the colonies to leave (depending on the level of harrassment).

we tried to remove the sparrow housing again but already 2 new eggs were laid so we put everything back. those sparrows are like rabbits *grin*