Subject: Skagit County Birding-- Martins, Bank Swallows, etc.
Date: Jun 25 08:21:12 2003
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com


Wayne:

Your count of 25 Bank Swallows sets a new high for any site in Skagit.
Also, Concrete has not been the main site of observations in years past,
although there have been previous sightings near here. However, up to a
dozen birds at a time have been seen in recent years during nesting season
near the Corkindale powerline crossing to the east (between Rockport and
Marblemount) and birds have been seen in a number of locations near
Rockport, such as a the Howard Miller Steelhead Park there. I don't believe
anyone has yet reported a nest despite this, but I did see birds going into
a barn (atypical nest site) off the south side of the Corkindale site
several years ago and it is clear to me that birds somewhere in the
vicinity. In addition to the central county records, single birds or small
flocks (highs are 4 and 10) have been documented in recent years on Fir
Island in Aug-Sept, but I had also had a bird that stayed for several days
in early July last year at Jensen.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com

>From: "Wayne C. Weber" <contopus at telus.net>
>Reply-To: contopus at telus.net
>To: "TWEETERS" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>CC: "GARY BLETSCH" <garybletsch at yahoo.com>, "STAN KOSTKA"
><lynnandstan at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Skagit County Birding-- Martins, Bank Swallows, etc.
>Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 07:01:03 -0700
>
>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
>
>

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