Tweeters,

Yesterday, June 24, I spent most of the day (about 9 AM to 4 PM)
birding in Skagit County. My main objective was to visit the PURPLE
MARTIN colony at Ship Harbor (the San Juan Islands ferry terminal,
just west of Anacortes), and to see if I could find any other species
new to my "county list".

At Ship Harbor, as noted previously by Gary Bletsch and Stan Kostka,
the martins appear to have established a nesting colony at the new
(I'm not sure how new) set of boxes on pilings just east of the ferry
terminal. Between 9:30 and 11:00 AM, I observed at least 5 birds in
total, all of which were either females or immature (plumage-wise)
males. There were probably more than 5 martins altogether, as some
birds were seen to leave on and arrive from long-distance foraging
flights, and at times only 1 or 2 martins were visible. The martins
appeared to have taken possession of at least boxes #10, 11, and 12,
and were repeatedly seen perching on or entering these boxes. A male
TREE SWALLOW was seen at various times perched on boxes #3 and 4, and
Tree Swallows may be nesting there. Best of all, I saw no evidence of
EUROPEAN STARLINGS on or near the boxes (Perhaps the Starlings have
already fledged first broods, and it just happens that none of them
have attempted second broods? Martins at other locations often have to
wait until Starlings are finished before they can begin nesting.)

After noon, I did some birding in the Skagit Valley in the area
between Lyman and Concrete. My most interesting observation was a
group of at least 25 BANK SWALLOWS watched for an hour as they fed
over the Skagit River. This was at a location on the Concrete-Sauk
River Road, 3.0 miles east of the Skagit River bridge near Concrete,
and 1.2 miles east of the junction with Cedar Grove Road. Gary or
someone else-- are they known to nest in this area? The Skagit River
at this point has freshly-eroded banks that look suitable for nesting,
but I could see no sign of any nesting burrows. Nevertheless, with
that number of birds feeding so consistently at this location (and
some of them briefly resting on sandbars), I suspect that they are
nesting within a mile of this spot. The only other swallows I saw here
were single ROUGH-WINGED and CLIFF SWALLOWS.

Also at the Bank Swallow location were a male LAZULI BUNTING singing
from a large willow clump in the field a short distance to the west,
and a RED-EYED VIREO heard singing from the large cottonwoods on the
opposite bank of the Skagit River.

If the BANK SWALLOW nesting location isn't known, maybe it could be
found with a little effort-- perhaps by someone paddling the river?

Good luck and good birding,

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net