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Purple Martins move in [1]
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Date: 2022-07-28
Two nest boxes on a piling - occupied!
July 26, 2022
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
A few years ago some enterprising bird lovers installed Purple Martin nest boxes on a couple of pilings of a local marina. I hadn’t seen any activity there until now. Granted, this bay is at the other end of the island from where I live, near the village, and I don’t hang around this busy (for us) marina in summer during tourist season but I’ve checked whenever I’ve been by. Summer is swallow season too! On Tuesday, while Mr O was picking up a part at the shop to repair our boat I heard the distinctive and unmistakable calls of Martins. Yay! Had to go out onto the dock to check.
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The marina dock is in a very shallow protected bay. Two nest boxes have been attached to the top of pilings at the ends of two different walkways in the transient moorage area. The lighting for viewing from the dock is poor since we’re looking south into the sun. But the box openings are facing us.
One of the walkways. The boxes on the neighboring walkway to the west are visible from here.
Purple Martins, the biggest swallows in North America, were never common in the western United States but their population crashed to near zero when invasive House Sparrows and European Starlings arrived and took over all available nesting cavities. Martins historically nested mostly in old woodpecker holes. But with half a century of steady efforts by bird lovers installing suitable nest boxes, their population is moderately stable in the West now, though still small compared to the eastern US: an estimated 5000 breeding pairs in the entire West (wdfw.wa.gov/...). The key is to exclude sparrows and starlings, and to deter terrestrial predators like snakes, raccoons and squirrels (animaldiversity.org/...). Siting nests over the water is a very effective strategy for both goals.
From Birdweb, at Seattle Audubon: Purple Martins form monogamous pairs that last through the nesting season, but not from season to season. They are cavity nesters that historically nested in tree cavities, old woodpecker holes, rotted pilings, and other natural cavities. Now most Purple Martins nest in man-made nest boxes. Eastern colonial populations are well known for nesting in large group nest boxes ('apartment buildings'), but Washington's martins will not use these group boxes and prefer to nest singly in boxes over water. www.birdweb.org/...
These splendid swallows, with their melodious calls and big swooping flights, were very busy this day. It looked like there were nestlings and/or fledglings needing to be fed. The adults were flying back and forth from a wetland not far up the bay.
Some bug in this male’s beak. Martins feed exclusively on flying insects, which is why they are only here in summer
A female I think, maybe a fledgling? Acting tentative, but watching alertly.
Males are deep iridescent blue-black while females and youngsters are brownish.
I took a short video:
There’s only one other set of nesting Purple Martins I’ve seen on the island, and they disappeared in 2015 when the derelict sailboat they used for nesting was towed away. They were using the hollow metal boom, a perfect spot. Safe, near bugs. It was sad to see them go. I wrote up a bucket about them but all the images were lost in the Big Purge so it’s not very useful any more :( I loved to hear those Martins in my local bay, and to watch them flying back and forth across the water. Seeing these new families up at the marina was really sweet.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/28/2113150/-The-Daily-Bucket-Purple-Martins-move-in
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