Tonight while installing two martin boxes on the Sammamish Slough with Karin
Osterhaug we were treated with the sight of about 25 black swifts near Swamp
Creek. After digging about a four foot hole and installing a 12 foot 4X4 we
quickly ran out of light and slogged our way out. We'll be putting up at
least two or three more in the next few days. The site looks like it could
have good potential should martins decide to get away from salt water and
nest near freshwater like they used to do here.
In the afternoon I tried to confirm a report of several martins on the lower
Duwamish, but unfortunately I couldn't do so in the few minutes I had at
terminals 105 and 107. But a gourd at T-105 had been vandalized, house
sparrows were nesting on one martin box, and a starling was using a hole in
an old piling. Caspian terns were coming up with fish over and over at
Kellogg Island. Ballard boxes haven't had martins since Wednesday of last
week, as far as I can tell.

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