Passionate purple martin friends have completed a major spring cleaning of the Purple Martin nest boxes. The work started with milling 1-inch-thick Western Red Cedar boards from dying trees provided by Werner Karsten during the winter. They were done with a Swedish Logosol chain sawmill by Peter Karsten. It takes about 8 feet of 8 inch wide more of less knot-free lumber per nestbox.
The recently organized Purple Martin Preservation Team built 24 new nest boxes to replace the ones on the floating dock and gangway of the Community Dock. The first 6 nest boxes were placed at the dock in 2012 and more were added in 2014. BC ferries replaced 4 pilons which were removed to rebuild the Denman West landing facility. Volunteers mounted 8 boxes on them. That was a bit challenging since the pilons were placed in deeper water to make the use of a ladder at low tide no longer workable. Kevin Behrens and Ian Lark came to the rescue to use a ladder in a boat to put them up. The two just cleaned them in a somewhat precarious maneuver a couple of weeks ago. The mechanisms to raise the cluster of 2 to 3 boxes on the 4×4 post along the gangway were replaced to simplify the maintenance of them. Good maintenance is critical to prevent parasite build up. A martin bug, fleas and lice infestation are a concern. To that end the nest material should be replaced annually and the box sprayed with a bleach solution while the birds enjoy their winter vacation in Brazil. When we removed 17 old nest boxes, we found that most had been occupied but not all. Joan Scruton had discovered that two pairs had nested in between the huge concrete blocks that form the embankment. We hope with the 27 new or clean boxes the martins will all nest in them this season. Volunteers have collected very small fir twigs and Western White Pine needles for nesting material. We put a handful of it into the boxes to give the birds a head start. The martins use this coarse nesting material to prevent composting. Hay would not be useful here.
A big thank you to the Purple Martin Preservation Team and other helpers; Dean Heyland, Steve Aberle, Joan Scruton, Graeme Johnston, Daniel Lonsdale, John Mills, Kevin Behrens, Ian Lark, Paul and Vicki Ryall, Laura Pope, Caryn Rea, Peter Karsten to get the nest boxes ready in time for the Martins to return by the end of April.
