Purple Martins on Puget Sound
From: Stan Kostka, Arlington, WA, 9/29/99
My
first season working with purple martins was nothing like I had planned. The
early weeks of spring were spent clearing the flyway around my newly installed
gourdrack, while I gathered and read information on these birds. Located only
twelve air miles from where martins nested last season, attracting martins here
is a possibility. However, the facts suggest this is not likely since I'm miles
from the saltwater, which is where martins are nesting in the Pacific Northwest.
In spite of this I persisted. Equipped with a loudspeaker, my gourdrack began
broadcasting Dawnsong into the predawn darkness as reports of martin sightings
were being posted in late April and early May. Evenings I checked the computer
for the latest news, and mornings I watched dawn break behind the silhouette
of my gourds. The spring of 99 was a cold and wet one, but purple martins were
arriving in the region.
By mid May I had become obsessed with a bird I had never seen in the flesh. (or in the feather if you will ). With binoculars and spotting scope in hand I headed out to Hermosa Point on Tulalip Bay to investigate a reported sighting. There, after a week of evening visits to the beach, I heard and saw the purple bird. A male, adult second year, perched on a piling just offshore. As the light went out of the sky he flew to a nearby cavity where he was joined by a female of which I was previously unaware, and together they entered for the night. Hermosa Point is a residential area, with significant populations of House Sparrows and European Starlings. The old rotten piling in which the martins had roosted, and perhaps were attempting to nest, had a three inch entrance hole, was hollow and open to the sky. I figured these birds could use a little help. After a few days of frantic emails, phone calls, and nestbox construction, seven compartments were installed on nearby pilings at high tide on May 22 with the help of friends and borrowed boats. Incredibly there were six martins there that morning, and they were in and out of the nestboxes before we even had them all up! I was thrilled to say the least. Aware of the fact that active management seems to improve rates of reproductive success among these birds, and since I couldn't very well borrow someones boat all summer, I bought a boat on my way home that afternoon. Nestbuilding commenced almost immediately. I placed nesting material into some of the boxes before they went up, but into the wrong ones evidently, because the martins moved most of it into other boxes. Four more martins showed up and on June 6 four more boxes went up,bringing the number of available compartments to eleven. A banded bird was sighted, so in an effort to read bands, perches were installed above each box. Three banded birds were sighted at the colony , but no band numbers were ever confirmed. The boxes are too far from the beach, and a spotting scope on a boat is unworkable. Egg and oystershell were supplied on two platforms. A House Sparrow was trapped out of the colony and his nest pulled. Starlings were not a problem.
With the cold wet spring,
the martins were nesting late, and all the starlings had already fledged from
some other pilings further off in the bay. A starling tried to enter the nestboxes
once that I am aware of, but the rectangular starling resistant entrances worked.
I held my breath as the 4th of July approached. It seems this martin colony
is situated in the heart of fireworks country, and the bay was lighting up.
In the end the martins stayed, perhaps reacting to fireworks as they would to
a severe thunder and lightning storm. Who knows, maybe the fireworks kept predators
away. The martins seemed more disturbed by the closeup clickings of my camera
shutter than they did by the big booms of fireworks. Six nests were built. Eighteen
eggs were laid in five of them in clutches of two to five. The first hatched
between July 27 and 31, and by August 7, fourteen eggs had hatched. I became
frustrated by the necessity of doing nest checks at a ten foot tide or better,
and then only when weather and daylight would concur. So on August 21, having
previously noticed blowfly maggots in one of the boxes, I loaded some extra
rope along with an aluminum ladder into the boat , and headed out to do nest
changeouts. Two nestlings, the youngest of the fourteen, were dead, perhaps
the result of inexperience on the part of their subadult parents. All boxes
had the usual fleas, mites, and lice. Blowfly maggots were in only one box,
along with a seemingly healthy and alert single nestling. All other nestlings
seemed strong and alert. I am amazed how tolerant these birds are of
our intrusions. For the most part the parents sat as we
did our work. Only one swooped and hissed at me. Hermosa Point is lined with
waterfront homes and I was often watched doing nestchecks. I can only imagine
what those folks must have been thinking, as they watched me climbing a ladder
out of a boat to look into birdhouses. Nestlings were being fed at the entrances
soon afterward. The first confirmed fledging was on August 27. All twelve nestlings
were confirmed out by September 12 when the boxes were last checked. The last
confirmed feeding/fecal sac removal was September 8. More martins arrived at
the site as the season wound down. On the morning of August 31 fourteen adult
birds were perched at the colony following a cold rainy spell,with the twelve
young confirmed in their respective nestboxes. On September 9 fourteen martins
formed up over the colony at sunset and roosted, several into boxes that were
unoccupied all season. On September 13 sixteen birds roosted. It has been a
great year thanks to the martins. Thanks also to all those who helped and advised
me, and thanks to all the people who have been doing purple martin recovery
work in the Pacific Northwest region of the US and in British Columbia in previous
years. I like to think my gourdrack will house purple martins someday.
