Hi Tweets,

Another note, hopefully my last, to add to all the dismal reports
regarding Puget Sound martins this year. I had a rather surreal
experience yesterday late afternoon and evening when I took the boat
out to Hermosa Point. This site has been consistently the largest
colony in Snohomish County since I started collecting data a decade
ago, 16-17 pairs there in recent years, 12-13 last year, but
yesterday I saw or heard not even one martin there at what would
ordinarily be the height of the breeding season, none, a check of
all box contents revealed that no pairs are breeding there this
year, and once again, I came home with a bag of dead adults. All
colonies I've been tracking have crashed, eight sites that supported
87 pair in 2006 now have 22 pair, three sites have been abandoned
entirely, the one that's done the best is only down 50%, and,
reproduction is not good, clutches of only two young in most nests
where eggs hatched, many nests have failed entirely, others may yet
fail as well before the season is over.

One thing worth noting, I think, is that European starlings are not
responsible. I did a rather exhaustive search for every book,
article, note, letter, etc. published and otherwise, regarding
martins here in Washington when Kelly and I wrote the species account
for the recent edition of Birds of Washington. I would have to go
back through all those files and look, but going from memory here, I
think it?s safe to say that virtually everything I found that talks
about Northwest martin decline includes reference to starling
arrival. Well, I have no way to know what exactly happened back
then, but I do know with certainty that starling competition for
nest cavities was not responsible for the widespread martin
reproductive failure in 2006, and starlings had nothing to do with
all the mortality this year.

Another thing concerning exotics worth mentioning here, I think,
House sparrows in my experience are much more of a problem at martin
colonies than starlings. Whereas martins routinely use starling
nests after starlings fledge, house sparrows render martin cavities
unusable, and the sparrow pairs often seem to fill multiple
cavities with nests then only use one, and go on to produce multiple
broods, and they apparently have the habit of wandering into nearby
martin nests and destroying eggs and young. They are much worse than
starlings, in my experience. According to the recent edition of
Birds of Washington house sparrows were recorded first in Spokane in
1895, and statewide soon after. Somehow martins survived the house
sparrow invasion, and went on to be noted in record numbers in
Seattle at the Green Lake roost in the 1940s. I know some people
have questioned those accounts, but I have to think the likes of
Higman and Larrison could correctly identify the species.

I realize we all develop views based on our own experience, and tend
to project those views into realms where we have no direct
knowledge, and I admit to that potential shortcoming. But, at this
point in time I am not convinced of the ever present and widely
accepted notion that the post 1940s martin decline in the Northwest
was primarily a result of starling arrival. There had to be
something else going on then, just as there was in 2006 and 2008.
Perhaps it was weather then too, or something else that reduced the
food supply, or disease. But I cannot see how it could have been
primarily starling competition, based on the observations I have made.

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net
Arlington WA