Purple Martins Nesting Season 2025
By Mary Hollen
The Western Purple Martin nesting season at Lagoon Point began promisingly—while the birds were still wintering in South America. Over the winter, veteran Whidbey Island bird box builder John Schmidt helped me insulate my nest boxes and finish modifying them to better replicate natural cavities: openings near the top, with no porch. The insulation was intended to protect nestlings during cold, wet weather when parents can’t forage for insects, and the top openings should prevent young birds from pushing each other out before they’re ready to fly.
Later in the winter, I met Stan Kostka, who generously gave me two of his own boxes, similar to those he first installed at Crockett Lake in 2006. Though I didn’t have time to insulate them, I mounted them on a piling with top openings and no porches, matching my other boxes.
Sheri Croll was the first Lagoon Point landlord to report martins—on April 18, at her floating dock boxes on the West Canal. They arrived at my East Canal site the next day. My boxes were still in storage, and tides delayed installation for another week, but that didn’t stop the birds—several pairs began inspecting my six boxes as soon as they appeared.
Through late April and May, the martins gradually built their nests. A starling and a house sparrow, being much faster builders, claimed two boxes. Purple Martin pairs tried to build in those boxes’ opposite ends but eventually abandoned them, leaving three active nests in the remaining boxes.
On July 10, I hosted Cathi Bower and the Birding in Neighborhoods South group—a large and interested crowd this year. After observing feeding behavior at my site, we gathered on Sheri’s deck to watch close-up food deliveries to her two dock boxes.
My first fledglings launched on a blustery day with 25-mph gusts. Several tried to re-enter their box midair; one landed on a neighboring box, only to be gently but firmly pulled out by the vigilant parent bird (male) before making it safely home.
Elsewhere on Whidbey, Stan Kostka found five active nests at his original Crockett Lake site, including several in the new PVC boxes installed last year by the Olympic Peninsula group. Mark Borden reported one nesting pair nearby, and Gary Hammer successfully fledged five nests from his “condominiums” at Callen’s Restaurant.
At Cornet Bay, Stan tallied 11 active pairs: five in the older boxes, four in new gourds, one in a boat crane cavity, and one under a pier ledge.
Back here at Lagoon Point, Sheri successfully fledged two nests. The front of one of the boxes Stan gave me fell off, and no birds nested in it. I ended up with three pairs nesting successfully. It was a great season!
