"Li, Kevin" wrote:
>
> In just the past two weeks I've watched as starlings have driven out two
> pairs of purple martins from nestboxes in the Ballard nestboxes; only one
> pair of martins remains, the only pair that I'm aware of in the entire city
> of Seattle. It's very tough to watch as up to a hundred starlings suddenly
> go rummaging through the pilings and nestboxes.
> I think the problem for the martins was exacerbated by their late arrival in
> migration this year. The young starlings are bigger and more aggressive than
> a few weeks ago, making it impossible for a few martins to defend their
> nests. A pair of tree swallows nested in one of the boxes earlier this
> season, when starlings were not coming around so much. As soon as they
> fledged, martins moved in.
> This weekend I may plug all the nestboxes entrances, except for the one that
> still holds the one martin pair. Starlings have just started roosting at
> night in the boxes.
> But it's good to hear that overall it seems Puget Sound martins are
> rebounding from recent decline.

Ya, hooray for the martins!! I suppose that the starling situation is
more complex than can be gathered from an impromptu discussion about
their nesting habits. All I can say is that the other cavity nesting
species here seem to be holding their own or even increasing slowly over
the past few years while starlings have taken to the telephone poles.
There is likely some other limiting factors in operation that are hard
to pick out.


--
Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca