Year 2: Another successful year of nesting Purple Martins at the Garry Point colony in Richmond !

Female Purple Martin in Richmond - Photo: Melissa Hafting

Female Purple Martin on post at Garry Point Park - Photos: Melissa Hafting

We cleaned out the Purple Martin nest boxes on Jan 11th this year at my city of Richmond nest box project at Garry Point Park and were very happy to see we have had the most successful year yet! 15 nests were used and we found only one dead bird and one unhatched egg and all the other young had fledged successfully! This is over double the boxes used since last year! This means we had up to 82 young fledge from the colony this year in the second year of the project! 

I will be recommending to the city to expand the nest boxes into further boat-only accessible sites along the channel, where the general public can also enjoy viewing these brilliant birds. Purple Martins used to nest in natural cavities which are sadly now in short supply and like Tree Swallows, are almost fully dependent on human-made nest boxes. The Tree Swallow nest box project, with heat shields on the boxes, that I have in place in 3 parks in the city, is also going well.

Thanks to Rob Lyske for not only building the Purple Martin boxes but also taking the boxes down and cleaning them with me and to John Reynolds for driving his boat, us and the supplies to the site. We were rewarded with a Northern Goshawk flying over us while lowering the final box and on the way in at Sand Heads Jetty we had 4 Rock Sandpipers; so it was a really rewarding day. I have never seen 4 Rock Sandpipers together in one spot in the Metro Vancouver area before. I have only seen them like that in Sechelt.

Rock Sandpiper (1 of 4 seen) at Sand Heads Jetty in Richmond - Photo: Melissa Hafting

The report can be viewed HERE

Thanks to the City of Richmond, Richmond Parks and Rich Kenny in particular for all his support. Thank you also to Councillor Carol Day for backing this project at council.

Purple Martin carrying nest material at Garry Point Park - Photo: Geoff McDonnell

Purple Martins at nest boxes at Garry Point Park in Richmond - Photo: Geoff McDonell

Male Purple Martin in flight at Garry Point Park in Richmond - Photo: Geoff McDonell

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