Hi Gary,

Thanks for the martin report.

If you are certain the birds you saw were martins, I'm going to suggest the group most likely did not contain any hatch year individuals. Yes, it has been extra-warm recently, but remember June was unusually cold, region-wide. This morning I checked martin nests on Camano Island and all pairs there are still on eggs. Most clutches were laid last week of June and into first week July, a couple weeks or so later than average. And the nest building and egg laying process continues. I expect what you observed was some late pair bonding behaviour, perhaps involving second year adults that generally nest later than older birds. Pair bonding sometimes involves birds flying up into each others faces and it looks like they are touching bills, which looks like in flight feeding.

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net
Arlington

Subject: Purple Martins at Alki Point (Seattle)
From: "Gary Smith" <gsmith AT smithandstark.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 22:28:43 -0700
Tweeters, a first for us at Alki Point (near the Lighthouse) this evening.
Perhaps the extra-warm weather activated more bugs along the beach, but we
were treated to a short and special show by a family of Purple Martins.
Probably four birds, just a few minutes of observation and they were gone.
Lots of calling back and forth and parents sometimes appearing to feed
youngsters in flight. The juveniles alighting several times for brief
periods of rest.

Do you suppose these would be birds that bred in the gourds over on the
Elliott Bay side of West Seattle, perhaps beginning post-breeding dispersal?
Has anyone checked out the gourds lately?