Subject: [Tweeters] Re:Purple Martin photos 7-20-07
Date: Jul 21 17:47:10 2007
From: stan Kostka lynn Schmidt - lynnandstan at earthlink.net


Hello Ruth and Patrick,

While it would be very unusual, it is possible martins may yet use
the boxes this year, especially since the cavities just became
available. I have seen occasional late nests over the years, some
succeed, some fail, once I banded two week old young in Snohomish
County on September first and those birds did fledge. So, two
week old young on Sept 1 would have hatched mid August , and thus
the eggs would not have been laid until late in July, figuring 15
to 18 days for incubation. As with martins everywhere, much
depends on the weather. Last year I observed martin eggs hatch on
August 14, also in Snohomish County. That particular nest failed,
the young did not survive even until banding age.

While males and females seem to share some vocalizations and calls,
only the males sing the long drawn out gurgly bubbly courtship song
that ends with the clicking sounds. If there are any late nesters
there, this song may yet be heard. Any bird singing it is a male.

Likely the web site you refer to contains photos of eastern martins,
so, realize that the coloration will not be exactly the same for
western birds. In my experience adult western females can be very
light underneath compared to many published photos of eastern adult
females. Aging females is difficult even with birds in hand.
(Always helps when they have been previously banded as nestlings).

Regarding the photos,

http://www.pbase.com/godwit/image/82539116, the bird in box is
Second Year (SY) male, born last year, next year will be all dark
blue black purple as you said. note spots on chin. bird on roof
cant say for sure, if I had to guess would say After Second Year
(ASY) female, based on the darkness in the underparts, and
noticeable purple above. Very generally , SY females tend to be
brown, in my eye, especially on overcast days.

82539058 looks like the same individual in photo of box with
apparent female on top.

82538890 Second Year (SY) male,
note spots on throat and spot on crissum.
Looks like 82538437 and 82538314 are the same individual. as are
some of the other photos, it appears to me.

Consider the possibility that some of these birds may already be
breeding elsewhere in the area at an unknown location. Martins will
respond to the calls of other martins over some distance. And even
though they may be feeding young at one site, they will associate
with and sometimes the male will roost at another site miles away.

Stan Kostka
Arlington WA
lynnandstan at earthlink.net




tweeters
Subject: Purple Martin photos 7-20-07
From: "Ruth and/or Patrick Sullivan" <godwit513 AT msn.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:59:57 -0700
Hello Tweets,

We have just updated our website with photos of the Purple Martins at
the
Tokeland Marina. The only bird we safely felt confident with in
identification
was the adult male,but the other birds we were not sure. We kindly
ask if any
Purple Martin expert could identify the other birds in our photos to
age and
sex since we are not that educated with them. We believe most of the
birds are
immature birds,but want to have an idea to what sex and exact age,if
possible.

It was enjoyable getting the photos we got and see the interaction
between this
birds too! We can only hope they will decide to nest in the 2 nest
boxes we
placed for them and we believe this would most likely take place next
year
since it is late July already. It is also possible to have late
nesters too.
The birds really seemed interested and curious about the new nest
boxes,which
is probably normal. We found a Purple Martin website online that
indicated that
Purple Martins have four distinct age/sex classes noted during the
breeding
season,but it takes only 2 years to reach adult plumage. Maybe it is
no as
difficult than it seems,but we'd enjoy knowing the age/sex of the
bird's we
photographed away from the adult male. Our photos of the Purple
Martins at the
Tokeland Marina can be accessed at the following link:
http://www.pbase.com/godwit/purple_martin_photos/