Today (April 16th) Wallis Reid and I
went to the Sidney Spit site to clean out the Purple Martin boxes, repair damaged boxes
and to scan the area for returning Martins.
A big thanks to Janet Mercer of Parks Canada. She
made the vessel available to us and expertly managed to deal with shallow
water, pilings, variable winds and currents, in order to place us in favourable
positions to reach the PM boxes on various pilings. Janet also provided us with
advice as to how best to go about our tasks. She had been assisting Tom
Gillespie for years and was very aware of how best to get the job done. In
contrast, this was the first trip to the Sidney Spit colony for both Wallis and
I, so Janet’s advice was not only invaluable but very much appreciated.
Also, a big thanks to Fred Beinhauer for building
brand new PM boxes. Rather than having to spend a lot of time in the rain and
failing light repairing boxes, we were able to simply slid the damaged boxes
off their mounts and replace them with Fred’s wonderful, brand new units. Janet
has kindly offered to repair the damaged boxes that were replaced, in the Parks
Canada complex and return them to us when they have been refurbished.
The only down side to the day was the lack of
Purple Martins cruising the site. However, when they eventually do return they
will find their homes in good condition, clean and awaiting another successful
season.
Thanks to my better half Chantal for expertly
downloading and processing the pictures that I took today during the course of
our activities.
John Costello
