There's good news and bad news on the Everett waterfront. The three
Arctic tern nests with eggs have been abandoned. Rat tracks were
observed near the nests and the eggs were gone.

Purple martins were bringing nesting materials to one of the new nest
boxes we put up on pilings in the middle of the log rafting area north
of the boat launch. The female picked up a long strand of some sort of
vegetative material and brought it in toward the nest. The male came
off his perch on the piling and took the piece from the female mid air
and dropped it. (No comment) The female picked it up and brought it to
the nest box. Part of it hung outside the nest hole for a while, but
eventually she got it all inside unlike the tree swallows that leave the
long strands hanging outside the hole. Strangely, another female
plumaged purple martin spent a lot of time in the nest box on the next
piling, but was attended by what looked like another female. Have no
idea what this was about. I have seen what I thought were an adult pair
and two young flying around the area for the past couple of weeks. I
know the martins will nest more than once, but what about the behaviour
of the other two birds that both look like females or young. Any ideas?
The other martin pair nesting in the piling hole are feeding young.

Janet
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Janet Carroll
Everett WA
jrc at jrc.seanet.com
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