While assembling some remote water quality probes in an old plane hanger at
the old Sand Point Naval Air Station in NE Seattle I saw a barn owl flying
around in the late morning. It was inside building 33, which is a hanger
full of old equipment and old boats; access might not be available to the
general public, being part of the NOAA facility. It's on the north end of
Sand Point, just south of the roadway that leads to the guard station at
NOAA.

On the lower Duwamish River at the T-105 access it appears that purple
martins are feeding young. At T-107 and in Ballard I haven't seen any recent
martin activity, but I'm still hopeful and will be checking again shortly.

July 17th I was in MD at the Patuxent National Fish and Wildlife Research
Center, where I noticed their purple martins had some vocalizations that
sounded unique compared to western Washington martins; they gave a short
buzzy note that sounded very unfamiliar to my ears. These martins were
nesting in a metal colonial box adjacent to a freshwater pond.

Kevin Li
Seattle, WA
e-mail: kevin.li at metrokc.gov