Purple Martins

Tony Leukering had a single Purple Martin at Villas WMA on March 31, and tonight I observed 6, plus or minus, at a colony site along Route 47 south of Goshen.

At CMBO's Center for Research and Education in Goshen, we've been fighting the battle with House Sparrows and European Starlings that is so typical for those who want to attract martins. Every couple days we clear our colony boxes of the nests of the unwanted pests, but the invasive birds are annoyingly persistent. We'll keep at it and see what happens.

At Cape May Point State Park's successful colony, volunteer Dave Thomas tells me, they don't trap the invasive birds, but do have to keep at the nest removal.