Our first Purple Martins (PUMA) of the year arrived April 19 at the nest
boxes at Cowichan Bay, near Duncan, BC...one male, one female. I am
wondering if any tweeters have PUMA information for the W. Washington area?
I would be delighted to recieve periodic updates, and will attempt to advise
of happenings here.

This is a species that clearly is on the edge of its natural range, but which
appears to be responding nicely to a little help. We started with one pair
in 1978 at Cowhichan (Cow) Bay, then no reports, then one pair again in 1985
at Cow Bay. There may have been one or two other pairs nesting in the drain
ports of a decommissioned Canadian destroyer in the Esquimalt naval base near
victoria, but details are unclear. Ceratinly, there were up to 7 pairs
nesting on and adjacent to the ship in 1987, after we erected nest boxes
there. That ship is now an artificial reef for divers on the Sunshine Coast
north of Vancouver, BC. There goes the habitat!

In 1985-87, I placed 24 nest boxes on pilings at Cow Bay. Others,
particularly Darren Copley, have since placed boxes there and in Victoria,
Esquimalt, Chemainus, Nanaimo and as far north as Campbell River. More may
go up this year.

As a result of this effort, it appears that we may now have as many as 7 to
10 pairs nesting a Cow Bay and 25-35 pairs nesting on Vancouver Island,
depending of course on how they fared through this recent migration....it's a
long, perilous flight to and from the uncertain habitats of Venezuela/Brazil,
where these birds presumably winter.

Those who may be interested in trying to promote PUMA nesting can contact
me directly. Generally, estuaires, marine bays or large shoreline marshes
appear best. I have found that a group of 2-5 single boxes on each piling or
large tree near the shoreline is effective. Eurasian Starlings will
invariably take one box, will defend against other starlings, but may not
discourage PUMAs from nesting in adjacent boxes. We've had 3 PUMA pairs and
one Starling pair nesting on a single piling, which leaves some doubt about
the early thoughts that western PUMAs are less inclined than eastern PUMAs to
nest in communal boxes. Availability of nest sites here on Vancouver
Island could be a limiting factor, and nest box programs appear to be an
answer.

Your thoughts?

Bryan Gates, Victoria (604) 387-1725 or (604) 598-7789 (H)
Victoria Rare Bird Alert (604) 592-3381
bgates at assessment.env.gov.bc.ca