I'm glad to read of all the attention to these Duwamish River access points, since a number of people (including myself) have been working on getting purple martins to nest in that area. It's a challenge to monitor so many areas, so reports are much appreciated.

The north end of Kellogg Island has pilings with four separate martin boxes that were installed by Rich Siegrist a few years ago; martins have been seen in them in the past, but no nests have yet been documented. Further downstream on the west shore (T-105 viewpoint) are a number of other boxes that have had 1-2 pairs fledge in recent years.

T-105, T-107, and Herring's House Park are all on West Marginal Way on the west side of the river and are all in close proximity. The Diagonal Way access is on the other shore, across from Kellogg Island. T-105 is easy to miss, but look for a Port of Seattle public access sign within a small fenced gravel parking area. Watch out for trains! Herring's House Park and T-107 are immediately adjacent to each other, and are south of the conspicuous Grayline bus depot. Watch out for bicyclists! Look for juvenile salmon in the narrow channel at high tide. On one occasion I saw several river otters in the river. On several occasions I've seen eagles, peregrines, and ospreys almost simultaneously from T-105.

Beyond the mouth of the river and to the west of Harbor island are other pilings which have martin gourds and nestboxes; two pairs of martins used these last year. They're in the lower corner of Elliott Bay, accessible by a funky entrance that is just yards SE of Salty's on Alki, at the far end of a Port of Seattle Park that has great views of the bay. The port website seems to lack information on this park, but the park is one of the more developed port access areas, with restrooms and phones and play areas.

http://www.portseattle.org/portandyou/community/02access.htm

While purple martins have been observed in a number of local areas in the past week (lower Columbia River, Tacoma, Lacey, Nisqually) I don't expect them to get serious about nesting until at least late May; many arrivals aren't until June or even July, with weather being a major factor.

Kevin Li
Ballard, USA
kdli at msn.com