Friday morning Kris Baker and I found that four purple martins had fledged
from the nest box in Ballard. A check of the nest on August 8 revealed four
eggs, so apparently all have hatched.

The evening prior we had seen them in the box, and Friday morning we saw one
young martin looking groggily out of the entrance. Moments later it seemed
to wake up and was looking alert, and it finally flew off to the east. We
heard and then saw three young martins huddled on the roof of the condos
directly to the north, and this fourth fledgling joined them after a brief
flight. The parents were busy chasing off crows, pigeons, and starlings, but
made several feedings to the rooftop gang as we observed with a scope. One
crow seemed to be stalking the fledglings, but the other birds seemed just
curious or oblivious.

Occasionally a fledgling would get brave enough to make a short flight from
the roof, and a parent would quickly follow. Over the course of half an hour
the birds wandered further north to Shilshole Marina, where they were hard
to observe among the many sailboat masts and rigging.

On successive evenings we've seen the martins back at the nest, but I would
expect them to be departing south shortly.

Kevin Li
King County Environmental Lab
322 West Ewing St.
Seattle, WA 98119

mailto: kevin.li at metrokc.gov
Mailstop: LAB-NR-0100

(206) 684-2344

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http://splash.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/lakes/index.htm