Updated PUMA report added ** New Richmond Purple Martin colony had good nesting success in 2023!
Male Purple Martin carrying food for its young at Garry Point Park - Photo: Geoff McDonell Female Purple Martin carrying grass to line her new nest at Garry Point Park - Photo: Geoff McDonell Location of the Purple Martin Boxes at Garry Point Park in Richmond, BC **Update click HERE to read our 2023 report on the city of Richmond’s PUMA nestbox project.** Rob, John, Ilya and I set out on John's boat to clean out the Purple Martin (PUMA) nest boxes at Garry Point Park in Richmond. We had over 1900 Bradnt’s Cormorants on the ride in and few Parasitic Jaegers. When we got to the site and began cleaning out the boxes we were very happy with the new colony's success rates. There was not a single European Starling nest and most of the boxes had successfully fledged young with fully-lined nests. The Purple Martins are using Mallard feathers and long dried grass to make thick comfy nests for their young. I took a photo of one of the fully-lined nests we cleaned out from the nest bo...