Hi Tully,

We have eleven purple martin houses mounted on pilings south of the
Shilshole marina, and west of the public access beach directly behind
the West Marine store on Seaview Ave. NW (~6321). Go along the North
side of the store and you can't miss it, there are signs saying "public
access". The pilings are about 100 yards from the shoreline at high
tide.

If you were in a boat leaving the locks, you would pass Ray's Boathouse
and Anthony's Homeport restaurants on your right, and then see a tight
row of pilings with a "7 knots" speed limit sign. Those are the pilings.

A pair of martins has nested here each of the past two years, for the
first time in about 15 years, according to Ken Jacobsen. Lately I often
will also see eagles, kingfishers, barrow's goldeneyes, Bonaparte's
gulls, mergansers, horned and western grebes, rhino auklets, DC
cormorants, herons, and Caspian terns. Last year I saw two river otters
on most evenings.

At low tide you can walk right up to the boxes, although during the day
it's hard to say if they'll be present; once they have eggs or young it
will be much more interesting. I'm out there quite a few evenings, so
you might see me out there sometime.
Thanks for your interest!

Kevin

>----------
>From: Tully Hammill[SMTP:hammill at u.washington.edu]
>Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 1998 11:31 AM
>To: Li, Kevin
>Subject: Re: Martin query
>
>Thanks for the interesting information. I live in Ballard too. Where is
>the martin house?
>
>-Tully
>
>
>