>From my own experience with trying to get purple martins nesting in Ballard,
I've seen more problems caused by house sparrows than I have by starlings.
My hopes for any martins nesting in Ballard are fading this season, due to
the sparrows. I haven't seen a martin there since Sunday, despite about 5
hours of observation this week at dusk. I'm having to evict sparrows on a
weekly basis, tide permitting.

In Woodard Bay I noticed a number of starlings using the interior of old
pilings for nesting, but few were using Jack Davis' martin boxes, which have
a white interior. Jack emphasizes using white to deter starlings. About 70
boxes and gourds are up now, and most are expected to be active with martins
this season.

Some Rainier Audubon volunteers have been providing nest boxes of PVC for
martins in Hylebos waterway in Commencement Bay, with good results. Their
web page has some information on the project.


Check out our lakes web page!
http://splash.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/lakes/index.htm

Kevin Li
King County Environmental Lab
322 W. Ewing St.
Seattle, WA 98119-1507


> ----------
> From: Kelly Mcallister[SMTP:mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov]
> Sent: Sunday, May 31, 1998 11:15 PM
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: Re: Northern Rough-winged Swallows & Purple Martins
>
>
>
> On Sun, 31 May 1998, Leslie Ann Rose wrote:
>
> > In the past week or so, we have noticed a goodly number of Purple
> > Martins making virtue out of vice within the industrial waterfront of
> > Commencement Bay. We have found them in old pipes and water lines (4-6"
> > diameter) along abandoned industrial sites. These sites as well as
> > cavities in old pilings in the area seem preferable to the birds.
>
> So much has been made of Starlings being the likely cause of the
> severe decline of Purple Martins in Washington post-1945. Now,
> we are seeing a dramatic rebound. Starlings are no less abundant
> are they? For awhile I thought that providing nest boxes on pilings
> over the water gave Purple Martins the advantage (perhaps because
> Starlings are simply not that well suited to nesting over water)
> and therefore, it was human manipulation of habitat availability
> that was bringing back the Purple Martins. Now, I am not so sure.
> As more and more Purple Martins colonize the pipes and potholes
> of the Puget Sound's shoreline inner cities, I will really wonder
> whether there ever really was a Starling factor.
>
> > In more than one instance, perfectly good, ready to use, unoccupied
> nesting
> > boxes are found adjacent to the occupied sites.
>
> In the east Purple Martins like to pile together in great colonies. Out
> here, they like their space. Put two boxes next to each other and
> likely only one of them will be occupied. That may be at least part
> of the explanation for what you have observed.
>
> Kelly McAllister
>