page 10 kitsapweek Friday, April 18, 2014
Gourds are ‘home tweet home’ for martins Purple martins depend upon human help in order to maintain populations
Left, a purple martin feeds its young in a gourd-style birdhouse. Below, purple martins make use of a birdhouse colony set up in Poulsbo’s Oyster Plant Park. The Kitsap Audubon Society maintains such colonies in Poulsbo, Seabeck, Brownsville, Bainbridge Island, Driftwood Key and Hansville. They are set up each spring and cleaned during the off-season.
KITSAP BIRDING By GENE BULLOCK
P
urple martins can be engaging neighbors if you don’t mind their boisterous social chatter. The largest member of the swallow family, they get their name from the dark, glossy blue of the male. Like other swallows, they are known for their graceful aerial displays as they scoop up insects in flight. Like the storied swallows that have returned every March 19 since 1776 to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California, Kitsap’s purple martins come back each May to the same nesting colonies. In the early 1800s, ornithologist Alexander Wilson observed purple martins nesting in hollowed-out gourds that Native Americans placed around their villages. His notes are the first documented record of man-made bird houses being used by birds in North America. The birds rewarded the villagers by providing insect control
Don Willott and Gene Bullock / Courtesy photos
around their homes and food supplies. They also alerted villagers when a stranger or animal approached. With the introduction of European starlings and English house sparrows, purple martin populations plummeted because of the intense competition for natural cavity nesting sites. Without
Seattle Optometrist Helps LEGALLY BLIND to See!
Just because you have macular degeneration (or other vision-limiting conditions) doesn’t always mean you must give up driving or reading. A Seattle optometrist, Dr. Ross Cusic, is using miniaturized binoculars or telescopes to help people who have lost vision from macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy or other eye conditions. “Our job is to figure out everything and anything possible to keep a person functioning,” says Dr. Cusic. “Whether it’s driving, reading, TV, seeing faces, check writing, bingo or bridge. We work with whatever is on the person’s ‘wish list.’”
Patient Driving with Bioptic Telescopic Glasses With interest-free payment options this technology is now more affordable than ever. “Definitely worth the $2150 cost. I should have come sooner,” said Dr. Cusic’s patient. For more information and a FREE telephone consultation,
human intervention, purple martins could have disappeared from North America altogether. In Western areas, some still use natural cavities, but most purple martins now rely on colonies hosted by humans. The males return early to scout for nest sites; but the rest usually arrive in May. If cold, rainy weather persists too long, however, it can threaten their survival. Their diet consists almost entirely of flying insects. If insects aren’t flying, the birds may starve. Kitsap Audubon has been parenting purple martin colonies in Kitsap County for more than 18 years, according to John McDonald and Paul Carson, who have man-
aged the program most of those years. Sandra
Reach 2.8 Million ReadeRs* Go Statewide or tarGet a reGion.
Call Today: 877-823-2020 Offices In: Bellingham, Kirkland and Olympia
contact YouR Bainbridge 206.842.6613 local WnPa Poulsbo 360.779.4464 MeMbeR neWsPaPeR Port Orchard 360.876.4414 to leaRn MoRe. Central Kitsap 360.308.9161 Bremerton 360.782.1581 A Division of Sound Publishing
Just By Placing One WNPA Statewide 2x2 Impact Ad.
includes 102 neWsPaPeRs & 33 tMc Publications. *BaSed on Statewide SurveyS 2.3 people read each copy of a community newSpaper.
ShowinG
Pavey has co-chaired the program for the last five years. Volunteer teams install, clean and monitor more than a hundred gourds and nest boxes in at least eight locations in Poulsbo, Seabeck, Brownsville, Bainbridge Island and Driftwood Key in Hansville. The gourds and nest boxes are put up each spring and taken down and cleaned each fall. Joan Carson recalls one year when the purple
martins watched patiently as volunteers mounted the gourds, and then promptly moved in. The teams also keep track of the number of nests used during each season, and estimate how many young are fledged. In 2011, for example, an estimated 133 young were fledged in the eight colonies monitored. Purple martins aren’t the only species that depend increasingly on See Martins, Page 15