This morning at 645 I checked the purple martin gourds at the Ballard public
access beach; I could hear a martin ruckus as soon as I climbed out of the
car, and I found 16 martins vying for the 8 gourds. It was hard to count
them, they were literally clambering over each other to get at the gourds. I
hope to get some additional gourds up tomorrow. For mid May, this is quite a
surprise compared to recent years; I can recall years when I had no martins
at all until mid June.

Later in the day I was on a boat going under the freeway bridge and the I-90
bridge east of Mercer Island, and saw peregrines under both bridges. At
Matthews Beach I heard an osprey high overhead, but I never did see it.

East of Matthews Beach was a flock of about 50 western grebes.

Kevin Li
Ballard