Sam wrote:
>
> I`ve only been reading tweeters off and on for the past year so
> if I`m repeating something allready discussed, please bare with me. I`m
> a volunteer at both Fort Lewis and McChord Air Base, where I help
> monitor bluebird,kestrel and purple martin boxes. We generally band
> from 60 to 80 purple martins a year, all from single unit boxes over
> water on the many ponds and marshes at the fort.
> This last winter I got hold of a book by J.L.Wade on " How to
> Attract Martins". Wade lives in Griggsville, Ill.,the so called "Worlds
> Purple Martin Capital". Wade is referred to the "pre-eminent living
> expert on purple martins". In his book, he has a chapter on western
> martins where, in his opinion, the only reason we don`t have more
> martins nesting in multi-unit boxes here in the west,is we don`t put
> up the boxes. He goes on to say that the martins we have (Progne subis
> subis) are the same species found in Illinois. The sub species(Progne
> subis hesperia), found in the southwest is less likely to nest in
> mult-units and is rarely found around human houses.
> I had observed post breeding martins on the east side of the
> runway at Morey Pond on McChord Air Base last fall. This spring I put
> up two, four unit,back to back boxes. I found a pattern from a Drumel
> saw pattern book, had a guy from McChord cut me eight foot pieces
> of different size pipe so one piece could go inside the other, put
> the big pipe in a bucket of cement, put it into the ground and raised
> the boxes to about 14 feet.
> Then to my surprise, on May 28th., I had five martins looking
> over the boxes. The mature pair started nesting right off. I didn`t
> really know the second year birds were in until I lowered the box to
> band the young and discovered four, two day old on the opposite side
> unit. The last brood fledged Sunday, Aug. 17th.
> Although the second four-unit box was only 30 feet away, both
> pair decided to nest opposite each other in the same box. Tree swallows
> nested the other four-unit box,one pair on each on each side. I thought
> swallows had a territorial problem? This was late in the season so
> maybe it was an "Any port in a storm" situation.
> We have sucessfull single boxes on pilings over water all up and
> down the sound. Maybe by placing multi-unit boxes higher up in an open
> secure area, purple martin colonies can be established. It will take
> a good location, such as open beach or lake property, a home on a bluff,
> maybe a pasture on meadow with a near by creek. Wade also says, "Water
> is a plus, but a two mile distance from a small pond or creek is close
> enough". Maybe on top of a building; Martins have been nesting for
> years on the top of the Pantages Theatre in down town Tacoma. There
> should be some good places on golf courses and at Montlake Fill,
> Magnuson Park and Spencer Island.
> For all the information you`ll ever need to know about purple
> martins,type in "purple martin birds" on any one of the search engine.
> They will give you all the do`s and don`ts, unit size,color, hole
> size and location and organizations to join. They even give you
> house plans. Sparrows and starlings seem to be the biggest problem,
> (hence the telescoping poles for monitoring).
> They say,one swallow doesn`t make a summer and I guess two nesting
> pair of martins doesn`t make a colony, but time will tell.
>
> P.S. McChord was so impressed, they`ve ordered me two commerical,12
> unit, aluminum boxes with three piece telescoping poles
>
> Sam Agnew
> Spanaway, Wa.
> tyrannus at tc-net.com