During one of our near-daily visits to Titlow Beach Park along the Tacoma
Narrows in Pierce County tonight we heard and observed a single Purple
Martin soaring high overhead. It's good to see them return! Tonight's
sighting is nearly two weeks earlier than last year's first sighting at
Titlow Beach (4/21/03). We have yet to observe any Purple Martins at the
new Dickman Mill Park nesting site that was established and used by eight
Purple Martins last year along Ruston Way in Tacoma.

I may have seen two Purple Martins at Titlow Beach on Tuesday afternoon,
but the large swallows I observed were seen from a distance and I did not
hear a call to help pin a positive identification on the birds as they
were swooping over the neighborhood east of the pier along with a trio of
Violet-green Swallows.

Happy birding!

--
Rob McNair-Huff ---------- Tacoma, WA
Author of Birding Washington (Falcon Publishing, 2004)
and Insider's Guide to the Olympic Peninsula (Globe Pequot, 2001)
White Rabbit Publishing ---- http://www.whiterabbits.com
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html