Hi Liz,

A while back I was hearing our weather described as the coldest
spring since 1948, and more recently as the coldest first week of
June since 1917, not sure how accurate these statements are, but in
any case it has been really hard times around here for the larger
aerial insectivores. Yours is not the only report I have heard of a
martin colony apparently abandoned, following the arrival of birds
at the sites this year. Ordinarily by this time of year early
martin pairs would be incubating eggs. I just returned from the
north end of Camano Island and the situation is even worse than I
expected. There are no eggs, as I was expecting, and only the
slightest amount of green leaves in any nest, something martins do
before egg laying. The really bad news is that I found ten dead
adult birds, both in nestboxes and on the beach, birds that had
apparently starved to death. Ten adults represents nearly 30% of all
the breeders at this site last year, and it's reasonable to assume
that more have died than I found today. So, that's a very
significant hit to the population. I've never seen adult mortality
anywhere near this level, even in previous years considered poor.
I observed six martins at the site this morning, weather was sunny
but it was still cold, and windy, two of the birds displayed
obvious wing droop when perched, an indication of a stressed
individual. How widespread this degree of mortality may be I do
not know, but likely it extends at least all across the north
Sound. Will be interesting to see how many pairs do breed this
year, and what reproduction will be following this initial stress.

Have any martins returned to the Edmonds site with the improved
weather past few days ?

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net
Arlington


Subject: Purple Martins in Edmonds
From: elizabethe brown <lizisunion AT yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:42:14 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Tweets: I wonder if anyone on Tweets has a theory as to why the
PURPLE
MARTINS who live in the gourd nests on the Edmonds waterfront
disappeared so
early this year? There was a healthy group, then they abruptly were
gone, long
before they usually depart. We wondered if they were victimized by
predators,
human or otherwise.
Liz Brown
Edmonds, Wash.