Yachats bird group expanding its successful swallow nesting program to Lincoln County parks, purple martins

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews

YACHATS — Since their start two years ago, a group of Yachats bird-lovers have aided hundreds of migrating species with specially constructed nesting boxes. Now, their success has prompted the Lincoln County Parks system to ask for help too.

SWIFTY – the acronym for Swallows in Flight to Yachats – recently issued an end-of-season report on the results of nesting boxes installed throughout the central Oregon coast to encourage tree swallows, violet green swallows and purple martins to breed. Among 131 boxes built and installed by the group’s volunteers, there were 391 live young counted.

In addition, seven ducklings were born in two of three wood duck boxes placed, and two of three purple martin poles had nesting pairs.

Most of the birds they helped this spring and summer have completed nesting and are beginning to migrate south.

The good results got the attention of the Lincoln County parks supervisor Kelly Perry. She had a problem at Moonshine Park, a 78-acre facility along the Siletz River near Logsden.

“The park had used shrimp waste as some type of fertilizer last spring, but it attracted a lot of mosquitoes and other bugs,” said Wally Orchard of Yachats, who co-founded SWIFTY with Jim Welch. “Kelly got our contact information from the Audubon Society of Lincoln City, and asked us to help.”

Because the swallows supported by SWIFTY are aerial insectivores (eaters of flying bugs), it seemed likely that more swallows would equal fewer bugs. It worked.

“We put up three nesting boxes in Moonshine Park, and lo and behold, they were immediately occupied,” said Orchard. “Each had two broods and no loss of chicks or eggs,” so “it seems that good food supply correlates with more nesting success.”

Not surprisingly, Lincoln County parks “would like a lot more boxes from us next year,” but SWIFTY’s limited resources may keep that number on the low side. Still, the group would like to expand to other parks in the county, as their limited resources allow.

SWIFTY is looking for more volunteers, and donations of funds and supplies. Those interested may email Orchard: wallyorchard@outlook.com or go to the group’s website.

Help for purple martins

SWIFTY is also growing in its support of purple martins — known to birders as PUMAS — another bug-eating migrating species found on the Oregon coast during the spring and summer.

This summer Welch met Eric Horvath of Newport, who leads birding trips to South America and the Galapagos Islands, and it led to a collaboration. Some 25 years ago Horvath installed purple martin nesting boxes, or tubes, on pilings on Lincoln County’s three major rivers.

With Horvath’s help, SWIFTY is now completing a survey of the purple marten population in the county, estimated at about 142 mating pairs. This year is the first that SWIFTY has installed purple martin boxes — a total of 20.

“PUMAS are in decline because of competition from non-native birds like starlings,” Orchard said. “They’re almost totally dependent on humans for nesting sites. Their nesting boxes are designed to keep out starlings and sparrows.”