Purple Martin Birdhouse Installed

Purple Martin Birdhouse – Champlain Park Community

The Environment Committee of the CPCA are extremely pleased to announce the successful installation of a brand new Purple Martin birdhouse in partnership with the NCC as a pilot project along the Ottawa River Pathway.

On June 6, 2019, the NCC team (Mike Muir and Christine Welch) met with the Purple Martin Birdhouse Project team members (Adrian Bradley, Catherine Shearer, Kelly Wiles, Andria Sherstone (other team members Jen Neate and Sam Sherstone-Fletcher were unable to attend).

At the birdhouse installation location along the Ottawa River Pathway near Remic Beach and Remic Rapids, the NCC team met with the CPCA Project team to officially start this joint pilot project. The NCC provided instructions and a demo of raising and lowering the birdhouse to the team along with keys to maintain the birdhouse.

Maintenance tasks include:

• Cleaning out and closing down the birdhouse at the end of summer
• Placing new nesting materials in early spring
• Monitoring and recording of any bird activity during their stay, of which this information will be shared with the NCC and other bird monitoring organizations

The Project Team Coordinators for this community volunteer project are Catherine Shearer and Kelly Wiles (members of the CPCA Environment Committee).

If you would like to participate in this community project please contact Catherine Shearer at: Metshag@gmail.com

The Environment Committee is grateful for our volunteer team members and the NCC’s Mike Muir in their support and in helping to make this happen!

Quick update – Donated Birdhouse from old Trailhead site

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who were involved with the acquisition and fixing up of the donated Purple Martin birdhouse from the old Trailhead site, which was kindly donated to us by Colonnade BridgePort Development Project Coordinator Bonnie Chen.

Also we’d like to thank the NCC’s Mike Muir who supported and agreed to this project moving forward in partnership with us and by providing an optimal location along with the installation.

Thank you to the wonderful community volunteers for:

• Salvaging the birdhouse from the Old Trailhead site and bringing it back to Champlain Park – Jim Cocks and Adrian Bradley
• Minor repairs – Alan Ramunas, Jen Neate and family
• Applying many coats of paint – Catherine Shearer

After further discussions and considerations on the potential safety issues with us and the NCC (i.e. climbing up above 10 ft to manually remove each layer of the birdhouse for annual maintenance) the NCC kindly proposed installing a brand new birdhouse. The NCC would own and structurally maintain while the CPCA Environment Committee community volunteers would provide ongoing yearly maintenance and monitoring of the birdhouse as a pilot project.

We are also glad to report that we have found a new home for the old birdhouse, passing onto another great community volunteer Peter Edmison where it will be installed and will be lovingly taken care of on Howe Island.

Adrian Bradley (CPCA Environment Committee)

2021 Update

Also see https://www.ottawapurplemartins.org/ for Ottawa’s Purple Martin Conservation Association.