A year ago I received a grant from PMCA to try attracting martins to nest at the elementary school where I then worked. That school subsequently closed, and I was left to find an alternative site and alternative way to involve students. The school was really the only site I thought suitable given what I have learned about martin nesting in our region.
I have since worked with a local organic farming couple, Terry and Dick Carkner, to arrange a new location on their farm. Next I will be organizing students to help with management and monitoring.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone in the Puget Sound area who has had success, specifically in sites away from salt water.
Before submitting my grant to the PMCA, I exchanged e-mails with Stan Kostka, and he was extremely helpful, and is obviously knowledgeable about martins in our area.
My site is along River Road in Puyallup, WA, directly across from the Puyallup River. Within 100 feet is a small pond, currently littered with junk and overgrown with non-native blackberries. Half a dozen farm buildings are nearby. The site is a few miles upstream from Commencement Bay in Tacoma, where Purple Martins are known to nest.
I hope the river doesn't rise and fall like the sound does. I spent the night in a waterfront property there one time and the water was lapping the dock when I went to bed ,when I got up it was at least a quarter of a mile out from the dock. I couldn't believe it. The neighbor said it goes farther than that at times..
Good Luck with your colony,have you got a bunch of school kids to help you clean up the area?
Theres another guy.. sorry, I forget his name, anyways he is in Cali somewhere and seems to know alot about the West Coast PMs. Hopefully he'll see this
Last August, while in Tacoma I was at the port and saw a female nesting in a pole in the docking area. I have a photo and will try to dig in up. With any luck I will post it tomorrow.
Best of luck with your colony.
Sam
Pmca is solely responsible for ending a ten year drought to start a colony. Many Many Thanks!!!
In answer to cleaning up the pond area, the junk is things like old appliances. Too big a job for students the size of mine. The pond itself is not actually on the farm property, although Dick Carkner (farm owner) has expressed interest in obtaining the property. He believes someone in the vicinity is using it as a private midnight dump.
We do get a lot of days of rain, though it's seldom the drenching downpours other parts of the country get. Summer is usually dry and warm, with occasional droughts. Strangely, my wife just informed me that the TV news mentioned the possibility of snow in our area this weekend. Yikes! Mid-April is unheard of for snow around here.
nice photos, I was at that site day before yesterday, I know this particular cavity, scoped a banded bird there in the past, there are actually three of these cavities at least, and maybe four, in pilings around the Port Ludlow marina, I've been watching martins use them for years. Not long ago there were nestboxes at this site, on the pilings at the guest moorage, perhaps where you tied up when you were there, but unfortunately, some tenants complained of bird droppings on their boats, and the nestboxes were removed by the marina operators. I tried to intervene, but it was already a done deal. I have also seen martins nesting in the end of a boom on an inactive sailboat at this marina. The port gave us permission to install nestboxes on some nearby abandoned pilings that are not attached to the active part of the marina, but this would require the use of a boat, which is usually not that big a deal, but, there is no launch ramp at Port Ludlow, only a sling, and, many abandoned pilings are being removed from the Sound in a creosote cleanup project, so, I don't recommend placing nestboxes on old pilings anymore. I don't live in the Port Ludlow area, rather, I live on the east side of the Sound north of Seattle, I ferried over there the other day because we are doing a mitigation project north of Port Ludlow on Marrowstone Island at Fort Flagler state park. There is a very old navy pier there with lots of rot pockets where some other "wild" martins have been nesting for years. I've resisted the temptation of installing nestboxes there in order to continually monitor these kind of spontaneous sites that do not involve birdhouses intended for martins. Well, that pier is now scheduled to be removed as part of the creosote cleanup. We managed to arrange for the removal to start after the birds are done nesting this year, and in the meantime we are setting up some martin housing immediately onshore in a fenced area that contains a couple small ponds. State parks folks have been really helpful, and an eagle scout is now involved, so, we are hopeful the birds will take to the nestboxes and gourds next year when the pier is gone. To help them make the transition I installed a couple nestboxes and a gourd out on the pier for this year, State parks cut a section out in order to keep people from walking out there, since the structure is so old and unsafe, was fun wading out in waist deep water and setting a ladder to climb up onto the old pier to get to the area where the martins are nesting. Will be interesting to see what happens.
Michael, good luck with your project, let me know how it goes.
Hi Sam,
Thanks for the note. I visited the Port Ludlow marina back in April and there were no gourds then. What kind of gourds were they ? How many ? Did you happen to get a photo ? I will go check it out later this summer, and see if I can find out who put them up. You likely noticed the weather in the region has not been all that great, in fact it has been terrible, reportedly the coldest spring on record since 1948. Ordinarily I would have been out visiting sites for well over a month or more by now, but the weather has been so bad I have only been out once. Normally I would be finding the first eggs about now, the first week in June, but am hoping the birds will be waiting for the weather to improve. The forecast is for more snow in the mountains tonight, and here at lower elevations it is raining like crazy and it is unseasonably cold, heard talk on the radio today we may set a record cold temp tonight for this date.
I did not take any pictures. They are super goards that are hanging on the side of posts with shepards hook type brackets. I would estimate
a dozen or so to be there.
The tide was down when I first saw them and I almost missed them because of there hieght. My group returned about six hours later and they were at about eye level. I had to take a peak in one and saw zero activity.
I also noticed new goard racks on the Ludlow golf course. Someone is working hard to build the population in this particular area.
Yes, it was cold and nasty but still very enjoyable. You do not appreciate it until you return to 95 to 100 degree temps at home.
Sam
Pmca is solely responsible for ending a ten year drought to start a colony. Many Many Thanks!!!
Next I will be organizing students to help with management and monitoring. 
