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Purple Martin Majesty

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COURTESY OF KEVIN LI

One spring morning at precisely 11 a.m., a bald eagle shoved off from its perch, leaving a 30-foot-high wall of rotting pier pilings just south of the Shilshole Bay Marina a lifeless relic. Kevin Li moved in, taking advantage of low tide and knee-high rubber boots. He carried an extension ladder and seven treated gourds.

Every spring since 1996 he has hung gourds here, at Alki Beach and elsewhere, hoping that purple martins, which winter in South America, would move in and mate through the summer. Each gourd he hangs has a single round hole about half the size of a fist. Purple martins love these, but competing house sparrows and starlings hate them.

"Eleven pairs nested here last year," he said, rooting the base of his ladder into the wet sand a foot or two beneath the lapping surf. "You hear that? That's a purple martin."

The bird, the largest North American swallow, has a high-pitched throaty chirp. Some liken it to a chuckle. Sure enough, a single male soared above and around Li and the pilings before zipping far off over the water and veering back for more passes. A recon mission if there ever was one.

Listen to this


To hear the purple martin, go to purplemartin.org.

Li worked from north to south along the pilings, hanging, tying and taping the gourds onto stakes that poke from high on the dilapidated wood. As he worked on the fifth gourd, five purple martins arrived. They squawked, perched on the spikes and poked their heads in the gourd holes. When a crow lumbered into the airspace, they joined forces to chase him away. A good sign to Li, and as close as these birds come to thanking him.

Long ago, Seattle's purple martin summer population numbered in the thousands. As near as anyone can tell, they didn't come at all as of 1988. They returned in small numbers in 1996 when Li, a King County environmental scientist, began his volunteer work. Last summer, 32 nesting pairs were tallied.

He finished exactly at noon and returned to the beach to view what he created within the hour. The five purple martins had become what looked like 10, but there might have been more. It was hard to tell. They were zipping around in crazy patterns, chattering, checking out accommodations.

Moving in.