Hi Kevin and Tweeters

This morning I visited the purple martin colony at English Boom on
Camano Island. The oldest young there are just ready to fledge at about
27-28 days, (28 days reported to be the earliest a martin can
successfully leave the nest.) In fact, one of the oldest may already
have been out, since I was unable to get a reliable count on the oldest
group of nestlings. I counted nearly 30 adults at the site, far more
than the number of successful breeders there. Interestingly, I observed
one apparent juvenile, an unbanded bird, so I knew it was not fledged
from this colony site. Apparently martins along with their recently
fledged young may already wandering far from their breeding localities.
Juvenile martins can be difficult to discern from adults based on
appearance only. The subtle differences become more apparent if you see
adults and fledglings perched together. The young tend to be duller and
less sleek in my opinion, sometimes they seem to have slight brown in
their color ? On average, fledglings will have slightly shorter wings
and tails than adults. Behaviorally, fledgling martins will beg food
from approaching adults, as do other species. With martins now
fledging, it is interesting to note that one pair in Snohomish county
has initiated a clutch of 3 eggs sometime between July 24 and 26. I
recall that in 1999, following an unusually cold and wet spring, martins
nested late, and one young fledged as late as September 12. Total
number of nesting attempts (eggs laid in nest) is up this year at the
sites Ive been monitoring, but it looks as though numbers of young
fledged per attempt will be down. This year Im finding more unhatched
eggs and more dead nestlings than in previous years.

Last night the martins at English Boom were behaving unusually in that
they were feeding at my eye level just above the beach and lagoons. I
watched for some time, even though I saw no readily apparent hatch of
insects. Martins [are reported to] generally feed higher than other
swallows, usually at least 50 meters and up to 150 meters.

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net
Arlington WA