Peggi Rodgers writes:

>The Red-winged blackbirds are pretty much gone as are the swallows.

>I know many of these guys are migrants, but isn't it a bit early for them to
>begin disappearing? Several people in the area have also commented to me
>that there aren't the usual number of hummers this year.

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Last year the violet-green swallows disappeared from our neighborhood and
I had assumed that they were on their way south. A couple weeks later I
was in the Snohomish River valley about 15 miles east of where I live and
there were hundreds of violet-greens hanging out on the power lines and
fences of the farms. I believe that this was a pre-migratory
staging/grouping area and that the swallows from my neighborhood were
among them or another group nearby.

Ed Schulz
Everett, WA
eschulz at eldec.com