Subject: Duwamish T105 purple martin nestboxes
Date: Apr 6 14:41:19 1999
From: Li, Kevin - Kevin.Li at METROKC.GOV



Regarding a friendly purple martin competition, Audubon chapters would face
stiff competition from one individual in Portland: Dave Fouts. Dave is
steward to about 450 purple martin pairs along the Columbia River from
Sauvie Island to Lyle in Klickitat County. Maybe Dave should be excluded,
and we could name the award after Dave Fouts!
The day when starlings are not a continuing threat to the native species is
a day I can only imagine dreaming about. For the present I'm hoping that
white interiors and martin-specific nest box holes will deter starlings
until some of the martin colonies can get established. Most of the martin
population in the eastern U.S. nests in cavities provided by people, a very
odd situation, especially in light of their long migration.

Last year I drove to a friend's cabin near Pateros to put up nest boxes for
bluebirds, and before I could even get the boxes out of the car, we saw
bluebirds sitting on my bicycle on the roof rack!

Thanks for the support!

Kevin Li

> ----------
> From: Andy Stepniewski[SMTP:steppie at wolfenet.com]
> Reply To: steppie at wolfenet.com
> Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 1999 10:10 AM
> To: Nladenbe at aol.com; Li, Kevin; tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Cc: Molly_baumann at merck.com; Jonathan at u.washington.edu
> Subject: Re: Duwamish T105 purple martin nestboxes
>
> Nancy from Kingston writes of Purple Martin nest box efforts around Puget
> Sound:
>
> > Hi Kevin and all:
>
> > Kitsap Audubon last year started a project for Purple Martins here on
> the
>
> > Peninusular and had some sucess with it. I know that at one location
> when
> > they were putting up the houses they were "buzzed" by a purple martin
> wanting
> > a looksee. We used two styles of housing, wood and PVC, and both had
> martins
> > fledge from them.
> >
> > I built some wood ones and was not in the group that was installing
> them,
> but
> > I did hear that some of the locations were too close to the water line
> at
>
> > high tide and they were going to move them up this year. It was very
> > rewarding to have a picture of baby Purple Martins looking out of a home
> that
> > you built for for them.
>
> > Nancy
>
> I am really excited by all the western Washington birders and Audubon
> groups engaged in the drive to "Bring back our Purple Martins." Look at
> the
> success in increasing Western Bluebirds in the southern Puget Trough
> region
> (especially Ft. Lewis). Eastern Washington birdlovers have also had
> gratifying success in increasing both Mountain and Western Bluebirds and
> other species (Wood Ducks and Western Screech-Owls come to mind) Now we
> see success is not all that difficult for the martin. To those who have
> experienced the pleasure of watching martins in eastern North America, I
> will predict the campaign to increase martins in the Pacific Northwest
> will
> be a rallying event which will increase participation and membership in
> Audubon chapters and general awareness of birds and our environment.
>
> So, all Audubon chapters in suitable martin habitat on the westside, how
> about it? "Which chapter will host the most Purple Martins." It could be a
> friendly competition.
>
> Then, the next step in the conservation efforts for all these threatened
> cavity dependent species will be meaningful efforts to bring back natural
> nesting holes and reduce starling numbers! Think about it, if there were
> natural cavities (snags) in abundance and no starlings, would there be a
> problem out there for these species? And, what will happen to these
> species
> when our resolve to maintain boxes fades?
>
> Andy Stepniewski
> Wapato WA
>