Tweeters,

In response to Andy's question about purple martins in Washington, I have
summarized what has been entered to the Natural Heritage database to date.
Most are post-1980 nesting records though a few are much older. The
Department of Fish and Wildlife has not attempted a population estimate and
the existing data would make such an estimate a bit of a wild guess. I have
not seen any information that would lead me to believe that purple martins
nest in eastern Washington. However, the nest record on the Columbia River
near Underwood could be argued to be an eastern Washington nest record. I
will hold out until we get one a few miles further east in Klickitat County.
We actually have an old nest report from behind the Ranger's house at Ginkgo
Petrified Forest State Park (in an elm tree), but I could not track down the
observer and believe it to be in error.

The vast majority of purple martin nests are in bird boxes mounted over
water. Natural cavities in pilings sticking up out of the water comes in
second (purple martins also will nest under metal cones atop pilings and
orange traffic cones placed atop pilings..ugly). Natural cavities in snags
are uncommon places to find purple martins and I am skeptical of the
accuracy of a couple of our records that are a great distance from large
water bodies (I didn't check the sources to see if I could judge observer
reliability).

Those observant Tweeters who have been following this thread will notice
that the list included here does not have some of the locations posted to
this list. These locations will be added. This is one of the strengths of
Tweeters. It helps build a more complete information base for such things
as breeding distributions. I am posting this list in the hope that others
will post information from their own observations.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
alleyes at mail.tss.net or
mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov


Washington State Purple Martin nesting locations by county

CLALLAM COUNTY

Sequim Bay

CLARK COUNTY

Columbia River at Vancouver Wash., 9-12 pairs

Washougal, 2 pairs

COWLITZ COUNTY

Silver Lake, west end

GRAYS HARBOR COUNTY

Hoquiam, Grays Harbor

ISLAND COUNTY

Penn Cove, Whidbey Island, Campers Haven, 2-3 pairs

JEFFERSON COUNTY

Quilcene Bay

Port Ludlow, 2 pairs

Crane Point on Port Townsend

KING COUNTY

Beneath Yesler St Bridge, Seattle (old record)

Bon Marche Department Store, Seattle (old record)

Lake Sammamish, north end

Attic vent of home north of Shilshole Bay (just north of Meadow Point)

KITSAP COUNTY

Driftwood Cove on Colvos Passage

Pipes and gun barrels of Navy boats in Bremerton

North side of Port Blakely, Bainbridge Island

North of Silverdale bay

LEWIS COUNTY

Snag along Bunker Creek Northwest of Adna (this one sounds suspicious, quite
atypical)

MASON COUNTY

West end of Skookum Inlet, 1 pair

Totten Inlet near the mouth of Kennedy Creek

Simpson Log Dump in Shelton

Northeast corner of Oakland Bay, a pair

Mouth of Skokomish River on Hood Canal, 1 pair

PIERCE COUNTY

Nisqually Lake, Fort Lewis, 1 pair

Johnson Marsh and other nearby marshes, Fort Lewis, many pairs

Dailman Lake, Fort Lewis

Farrell Marsh, Fort Lewis

Titlow Beach, old Ferry Terminal

under overhang of old Pantages theater, Tacoma (old record)

Gig Harbor boat basin

Browns Point County Park, 1 pair

Hylebos waterway, Tacoma

Tall snags in burned area, Fort Lewis

SAN JUAN COUNTY

Cady Mountain, San Juan island, several pairs in cavities of snags

Mount Dallas, San Juan island

Marsh Hill Wildlife Haven, north of Trout Lake, San Juan island

Deadman Bay vicinity, San Juan island

Waldron Island

SKAMANIA COUNTY

Columbia River near Prindle

Columbia River near Beacon Rock

Columbia River near Underwood

SNOHOMISH COUNTY

Nest box at residence in Everett, Pinehurst vicinity (another suspicious
record because of distance from water)

THURSTON COUNTY

Budd Inlet, Butler Cove, north of Olympia

Budd Inlet, East Bay/KGY radio

Budd Inlet, Percival Landing

Budd Inlet, West Bay Marina

Eld Inlet, Madrona Beach

McAllister Creek mouth at dock

Henderson inlet, South Bay log dump, many pairs

Eld inlet, west of Young's Cove

Budd inlet, Berverly Beach dock

Budd inlet, Dept. of Natural Resources Marine Station dock

Eld inlet, Flapjack point piling

Eld inlet, Squaw Point at Evergreen State College Beach

Budd inlet, Boston Harbor marina

Totten inlet, Steamboat island boat moorage area

Totten inlet, pilings with nest boxes a mile south of Steamboat island

WAHKIAKUM COUNTY

Columbia River, pilings at Cathlamet, 2 pair

Columbia River, pilings at Altoona, 2 pair

WHATCOM COUNTY

Lake Whatcom, .4 mile southeast of Bloedel Park