On Aug 3 I led a Seattle Audubon trip to a few city purple martin nesting
sites; although some martins have already fledged and taken off, we found a
number of them that are still roosting or feeding young. Jack Block Park
near the lower Duwamish had the most activity, although it was somewhat
subdued by the cool cloudy morning. Six of the martin families have fledged,
but one in a box still has nestlings that can be seen as they poke their
heads from the entrance. The bright yellow gape is hard to miss. At least
three or four gourds were packed with young fledglings, and as the morning
progressed we got to see them emerge and test their wings again.
On Saturday evening I visited the site at dusk and abut 15-20 martins could
be seen noisily mobbing the gourd entrances as the youngsters tried to enter
simultaneously. The far section the the park is closed due to physical
safety concerns around an EPA Superfund Project, but yesterday I had a gate
key from the Port.

Port of Seattle Terminal 105 was relatively quiet with just one pair of
martins nesting, but ospreys could readily be seen upstream.

Herring's House Park near Kellogg Island was much busier with ospreys, and
martins were active around at least two nests; last week I saw six martins
on the island. Martins were in the northenmost box installed by Rich
Siegrist, and others were around the third piling cavities. Yesterday we
also saw six blue angels.

The pier 90 martins are still active, but no nestlings are visible yet.

An evening visit to the Montlake Fill was fruitless for the scissor tailed
flycatcher, but Kris Baker and I got a great look at a peregrine as she flew
low overhead toward the football stadium. Wood ducks and sunny warm weather
were other highlights.
Earlier in the day I heard a peregrine scream near the West Seattle Bridge,
but we were unable to spot it.

Kevin Li
Ballard, USA
kdli at msn.com
http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/wildwatch/martincam/index.html
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