That's pretty cool! I had a similar experience yesterday, though I saw no young.

When I visited Marymoor Park yesterday morning, I was pleased to see four Purple Martins swooping low right over the Compost Piles next to where I was parked in Lot G! There was at least one male, and they were all calling. One female swooped very low into the ground a few times. I realized, what if she's collecting nesting material?

30 minutes, many Swainson's Thrushes, a few Western Wood-pewees, a singing Black-headed Grosbeak, singing Orange-crowned and Yellow Warblers, Rufous Hummingbirds and two FOY Willow Flycatchers later (phew! Good birding!), I arrived at the Martin gourds. One was occupied by Tree Swallows, but the far left one was visited by a Martin pair twice while I was there! The male sat above as the female placed her nesting material inside. I wonder, were they really getting the material from the Compost Pile? It's possible!

I left my camera battery at home by accident, so the best I managed was a few phone-scoped shots and two videos - but I'm happy! Purple Martins have the coolest songs and calls.

Good birding, Joshua Glant

Mercer Island, WA

Josh.n.glant at gmail.com



> On Jun 7, 2015, at 8:58 AM, stan Kostka lynn Schmidt <lynnandstan at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Hi Tweets,
>
> I spent some time yesterday tromping through the mud, checking nestboxes at English Boom on the north end of Camano Island, and found that about a third of the nests already have eggs. This is the earliest I have ever seen martin eggs in the North Sound.
>
> Stan Kostka
> lynnandstan at earthlink.net
> Arlington_______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters