Purple Martin Gourds are up at Milford Point!

It started a few weeks ago (see a previous blog entry on the Purple Martins at Milford and Stratford Point here) with site selection and placement of the ground stakes and foundations, but now the first of our new Purple Martin gourd trees is up! One of the volunteers at our Coastal Center at Milford Point, Sean Clark, assembled the aboveground parts of the new Purple Martin real estate last week and hoisted the gourds into position.

Sean Clark, a volunteer at the CAS Coastal Center, assembles the new Purple Martin gourd tree

It is too late in the season for any martins to breed in there this year, but the birds breeding in the old martin house visible in the background will certainly remember that it is here when they return from their winter in warmer places. And hopefully their young will return with them. It seems that three pairs of Purple Martins are on nest at Milford Point, at the moment.

The new Gourd Tree in place. The old martin house in the background currently has three breeding pairs of Purple Martins, but House Sparrows have taken over most of the nest spaces. The new gourds are sparrow and starling resistent and will hopefully be even more successful

Next week we hope to get the second gourd tree up in the CAS managed Lordship Coastal Grassland Management Area at Stratford Point. Then we'll just need to wait and hope that local birds will take note of these nice new facilities as they forage in the area.