I see Caspian tern activity virtually every time I visit the pier 90 area in
spring and summer, with as many 100 adults on the tide flats at the south
part of Discovery Park. I think the terns have been nesting on the warehouse
roof tops by the north end of Myrtle Edwards Park; I've seen the activity
there for a number of years, but the suspected nests are out of site on the
roof tops. I think Michael Hobbs reported about 200 Caspian terns there in
late spring or early this summer.

After the disruption of the Tacoma Caspian tern colony earlier this year, I
took Nick Spang of Columbia Bird Research on a search for the errant terns;
we found about 30 terns, but Nick said none were from the Tacoma colony.

I was seeing tern begging along the city waterfront since about 3-4 weeks
ago.

This morning I made the rounds to Seattle purple martin sites, and found
that 4 pairs are still actively feeding nestlings. Another pair may have
fledged already, from a gourd east of the T5 access and west of Harbor
Island. One nest in Ballard failed, and I found at least two intact eggs
inside; the other two nests are still active. One pair on the Duwamish at
T-105 has at least several days to go before fledging; I saw at least two
hungry nestlings this afternoon.

Kevin Li
Ballard, USA
kdli at msn.com