RR Branstrom | Daily Press After removing a nest, Joe Kaplan of Common Coast Research and Conservation looks inside a purple martin house after the seasonal departure of its feathered residents.

ESCANABA — Maintaining purple martin houses can be a messy business in the fall — it certainly was at Sand Point in early October.

Seven wooden bird boxes, each with 14 living units, sit on stilts around Ludington Park in Escanaba. The project to provide accessible habitat for purple martins at the northern edge of their range is a collaboration between the city of Escanaba, Wildlife Unlimited and Common Coast Research and Conservation—the latter formed in 2010 to maximize and improve habitats for Great. Migratory birds of the lakes. Before that there were some purple martin houses in Esky but they were not ideal for the climate.

The purple martin (Progne subis) is a large species of swallow; its adult males are bluish-black, while females are grayer with purple on the head and back. They almost exclusively make their homes and raise young in artificial housing. The birds are “cavity nesters” — meaning they use enclosed dwellings rather than open nests — but such natural habitats, such as tree hollows, are often dominated by the more aggressive European starling. Centuries ago, Native Americans are said to have created martini cavities in hollowed out gourds. Today, special starling-proof entry holes have been designed for purple martin birdhouses; some are even patented.

The martin boxes currently in Ludington Park are made of wood. Before Common Coast Research and Conservation came on the scene, there were a few plastic boxes, aluminum ones, and an old wooden one that was designed to look like the Harbor Tower.

After wintering in or around the Amazon basin, purple martins return to the area where they hatched to hatch in the spring—a journey of about five thousand miles.

Common Coast founder Joe Kaplan explained that since Upper Peninsula nesting sites are at the northern edge of the bird’s range, and the spring season in the region can get bitterly cold, the plastic houses that can provide sufficient shelter for purple martins from more southern states do not. They do not provide the insulation that wooden boxes can provide. As part of the organization’s Escanaba Migratory Bird Enhancement Initiative, Common Coast sought to replace the plastic and aluminum boxes and rotting Harbor Tower tribute — with less-than-ideal wedge-shaped cavities — that had been in Ludington Park for years 1970.

“There has always been a tradition” Kaplan said. “Escanaba is one of the few municipalities that maintains purple martin boxes. … Martins were very common in UP, and starting around the early ’90s, the population just collapsed.”

Wildlife Unlimited of Delta County built and donated new, sturdy wooden boxes to go on poles that were built by Northern Machine and installed by the city of Escanaba’s public works department. A seventh is new this year.

Because martins try to return to a nesting area near those they are familiar with, trying to establish or build a colony can be a difficult task. But Kaplan reported successfully luring birds to new homes by playing a recording of the male martin. “Dawn Song”.

In 2015, the year the Harbor Tower-looking box was replaced, Escanaba had just three purple martins, Kaplan said — a breeding pair and a female with a damaged leg. In 2018, six pairs successfully released 29 chicks, according to a report from Common Coast. Now almost all the cavities are occupied and about 100 adults each year make Escanaba their home.

About halfway through the season, usually in early July, Common Coast takes a nest inventory, counting the number of eggs and chicks. In the fall, after the birds have flown south, volunteers return to see if any stranded eggs remain and to clean the cavities.

On October 10, Kaplan and Mike Segorski met in Ludington Park to complete the task. After lowering the boxes one by one onto poles with winches, Kaplan, gloved hands, climbed a ladder, removed the nests and explained the importance of keeping houses tidy.

“They’re heading for August 1st. And if you don’t clean the boxes, there will be adult fleas waiting for them when they come back in April. Those fleas live all winter in the nest in all the detritus and stuff; it is so disgusting. And sometimes there are hundreds.”

He swept the old nests and debris into a five-gallon bucket. Of course, some boxes were full of fleas.

“They are quite prolific” Segorski remarked.

Kaplan joked about how people always say that after a nuclear war there will be rats and cockroaches, but… “There will be fleas.”

And with that, he climbed the ladder again, this time with a butane torch, and burned away the dust and vermin inside the cavities. Then a small leaf blower attacked what was left.

The July count had shown that the maximum number of purple martin chicks in Escanaba this season could be about 109. But several unhatched eggs were found, along with the remains of at least one juvenile bird.

At press time, the exact final number of successful broods this year was not known, but it is safe to say that it is roughly on par with the last two years – Common Coast has reported numbers in the recent past of 40 to 50 breeding pairs productive. between 50 and 100 young people.

When the purple martins return in the spring, they will find a bed of pine needles in each of Escanaba’s 98 boxes. They will most likely return, but it is quite possible that some new birds with roots in nearby places like Menominee or Wisconsin will be recruited to settle. Perhaps some Escanaba natives will fly a little farther and live in a new residence in Munising.

Above the base of the pine needles in the cavities designed especially for them, the purple martins will build their nests of leaves and twigs, and the cycle will begin again.