Call for PUMA Nest Boxes
If you’ve been to Boston Harbor recently or came to Prairie Appreciation Day, you may know that the largest North American swallow, the Purple Martin, has returned to the area! Due to a lack of sufficient natural cavities, martins heavily utilize man-made nest boxes. In fact, in the Eastern United States they almost exclusively use nest boxes or gourds. Locally, SSBA monitors boxes at the East Bay and Boston Harbor colonies. These boxes are mounted on shoreline pilings. In recent years, we’ve lost nest boxes due to storm damage outside of the breeding season. South Sound Bird Alliance is looking for skilled woodworkers or those handy with tools who can independently construct nest boxes. These boxes would be put up in the Fall so that they might bolster the population come Spring next year. We will be using construction plans from a successful project in British Columbia. The plans and other resources can be found on the following website: https://georgiabasin.ca/puma.htm
If you are interested in constructing boxes, either for Purple Martins or our other Western Bluebird project, please contact Connor Tracey: connor.r.tracey@gmail.com
Photo credit: Purple Martins and their Nest Boxes, by Connor Tracey.
