As far as Ive been able to determine, records of Purple Martins nesting
that far east of the Cascades in Wa are very rare (over two records
for all time ) . The most recent Wa sighting before yours Im aware of
that far east was in Richland in Sept 1990, a non breeding female or SY
male. a pair was reportedly breeding at Potaris on the Columbia in
1944. in northern Idaho at Mica Bay on Lake Coeurd'Alene probable
nesting in 1974. and several other sites in southern Idaho and one in
eastern Oregon in the 1960's, 70's, and early 80's . but nothing known
to me currently. Horvaths 1999 Oregon survey found them gone from the
Klamath. with the recent (last fifteen years) increase in martin
populations along the lower Columbia due to nestbox installations, it is
not unreasonable to think they may be moving up the river . . they have
currently been documented as far upstream as Bingen. martins range far
post fledging pre migration. or maybe they are nesting that far east
again already . in any case, this is an important sighting to add to
the scant list of martin sightings that far east in Washington.
hopefully you will find a breeding pair over there soon.

Stan Kostka
Arlington Wa
lynnandstan at earthlink.net


Subject: Fw: [inland-NW-birders] Chelan County Purple Martin
"David Beaudette" <drtbrdr at earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 14:51:42 -0700

OOPS. Looks like I should have originally posted this to Tweeters as
well.
-----Original Message-----
From: David Beaudette
To: Inland NW Messages
Date: Friday, August 17, 2001 3:38 PM
Subject: [inland-NW-birders] Chelan County Purple Martin


>Greetings,
>On August 16, I went on my evening walk at Wenatchee Confluence State
>Park in Chelan County, WA. I spotted a single Purple Martin in a swarm
of
>about 400 birds; mostly Common Nighthawks, Bank and Barn Swallows, with

>a few Rough-winged Swallows and Vaux's Swifts, over the lake off the
>south end of Wenatchee Confluence State Park. As I worked through the
>gathering I identified a juv Purple Martin or possibly SY female Purple

>Martin in flight.
>Looking for the status of this species in eastern Wshington I checked
these
>two good references:
>1] The Breeding Birds of Washington State by Smith, Matttocks and
Cassidy,
>1997.
>No breeding was indicated in eastern Washington with the following
possible
>exception.
>There was a positive breeding record indicated for the southwest corner
of
>Klickitat
>County/or southeast corner of Skamania County. By the way, this
publication
>is great
>for getting an overview of habitat usage by each species. I use it a
>lot.
>2] Birds in Washington State: a county comparison, by Ken and Laurie
>Knittle, 2001.
>This publication has checklists for all of the 39 counties of
Washington
>State with
>abundance codes. There is also a handy Spreadsheet Comparison
including
all
>of the species found in the state. The species are listed on the left
side
>of this
>spreadsheet and the counties across the top, with eastern Washington
>counties
>listed as the first group and western Washington counties grouped next.
The
>Purple Martin is listed for only two counties in eastern Washington: a
code
>5 for
>both Benton and Okanogan Counties. A Code 5 means less than 5 records
for
>that county.
>Does anyone know of any more records for eastern Washington or could
this
>species
>possibly nest somewhere along the Columbia River in north central
>Washington? How
>about inland BC or Idaho?
>
>Good Birding,
>David Beaudette
>Wenatchee, WA
>drtbrdr at earthlink.net