Hi Al,

In recent years, Kevin quit opening the nestboxes at Shilshole
because they were attracting so many House sparrows. Last time I was
there, a couple months ago, all the boxes were plugged. To the
best of my knowledge, last year all the breeding martins at this
site used the gourds. For some reason, perhaps movement in the
wind, House sparrows tend to avoid gourds, and Kevin pretty much
switched entirely to gourds in recent years.

Regarding the fact that only a couple martins were there, that's not
unusual for this time of year at mid-day, especially with the cool
rainy weather scattered across the region. Martins will be away from
their nest sites during most of the day, trying to find enough to eat.

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net
Arlington WA



Subject: Shilshole martins?
From: Al Wagar <alwagar AT verizon.net>
Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 21:04:41 -0700
At today's mid-day low tide (when you could walk half way to
Bremerton) I
looked in on the purple martin gords and nest boxes just south of
Shilshole
Marina. Only a couple of martins showed up, and the holes were
plugged in several
of the next boxes. Anyone know why.