Seattle Press on Line - Purple Martins Hatch Two Broods

Purple Martins Hatch Two Broods

Kevin Li tends a Purple Martin box.

Sep 20, 2000 -- Purple martins are widely thought to be making a steady comeback in the Puget Sound region, aided by a small number of volunteers who put up boxes and monitor colonies.

Boxes put up in the lower Duwamish River were used by two purple martin couples to bring off broods of three or four each respectively in the summer of 2000.

Purple Martins used to be common in downtown Seattle in the summer. Old-timers remember scores of nests on the Bon Marche building in the 1950s. Competition for nest sites from starlings and nest predation from crows are possible factors that may have led to the demise of the urban population, although there were no studies of martin ecology conducted at the time. A few pairs of purple martins continued to nest in the downtown until perhaps sometime in the 1980s.

Martins were common generally throughout the region in the early decades of last century, and thousands are reported to have congregated at Green Lake during fall migration in the '30s.

The boxes used by this years' martin families were put up and monitored by Kevin Li with help from Kris Baker and Rich Siegrist. Li credits the Port of Seattle with granting access and supporting this grassroots recovery effort.

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