On Sunday I searched for purple martins on Elliott Bay and found none at the gourds at T5, nor at the nest box at T-105; finally after an hour I found a group of 6 noisy martins on a power line at Salty's restaurant, about a quarter mile northwest of T5. An adult (ASY) male was present with the 5 others, and I saw one of those 5 feeding some of the fledglings; about 6 weeks ago I had counted 4 eggs in one of the T5 gourds, so this group fits with a scenario of 4 fledglings from the 4 eggs. Meanwhile, I spotted another group of six martins flying overhead, making for a dozen seen simultaneously at Salty's. The earlier reports I had of 25 have yet to be confirmed, but I've seen as many as 16 myself.

The last group of Ballard martins also fledged this weekend, nearly a week after the earlier family. Fall is coming fast! The T105 martins I've rather neglected in my monitoring, but I did see at least two nestlings poking their heads out last week.

Kevin Li
Ballard, USA
kdli at msn.com
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