I checked the north end of Lake Samamish (east of Marymoor Pk.) on 7 July
and did NOT find martins (a WA state bird!) despite intensive scanning of
all the pilings there and the adjacent lake area as far as I could
reach. Thanks for the list of other locations. Also, Wilson Cady
described an area east of Vancouver along the Columbia R. with nesting
martins; this area being across from areas along the Oregon side of the
Columbia with martin colonies. It's apparently a pretty healthy population.

Tom Love 45N, 123W
Dept. Soc/Anth
Linfield College
McMinnville, OR 97128
tlove at linfield.edu

On Tue, 25 Jul 1995, Scott Ray wrote:

> Michael Brown wrote:
>
> > Is it unusual for them to nest *over* water?
>
>
> Michael,
>
> The western race of Purple Martin prefers to nest over water. I know of no
> Purple Martins currently nesting away from water in western Washington at
> least. Several years ago a pair bred in down town Seattle in a building.
>
> Are Purple Martins becoming more common in western WA? With Michaels
> colony, I now know of the following breeding sites:
>
> Titlo Park, Tacoma
> Gig Harbor boat basin
> Silverdale bay (north end)
> Quilcene boat basin
> Olympia boat basin
> Lake Samamish (north end) Is this population still around?
> Fort Lewis
>
> I know there are others that I can't think of at the moment.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Scott Ray
> Yakima, WA
> scray at wolfe.net
>
>
>